BLG highlighted that Turkey imported 626,000 new cars last year and manufactured 1.4m at home. “Turkey’s strategic location, linking Europe with the Middle East and Asia, makes it an ideal transport centre and logistics hub,” said Akgül. “We want to leverage this advantage to boost the international development of the BLG Group.”
BLG already moves vehicles by rail from its Kelheim vehicle terminal in Germany to Köseköy, one of the largest rail logistics centres in Turkey and the closest freight terminal to Istanbul. The company transports around 200 vehicles per train, with two trains departing per month. The trains are made up of 19 car transport wagons, which can transport 190 to 228 cars, depending on the load factor. On its way to Turkey, the train passes through Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The BLG car trains are the first to travel through the 13.6-kilometer Marmaray Tunnel, which runs under the Bosphorus. The tunnel connects the Asian region of Turkey with Europe and freight trains can use it between 01:00 and 04:00.
When the pilot phase of the rail service was launched, Oliver Fabian, head of sales at BLG AutoRail said: “Rail transport to Turkey is forward-thinking. It is an attractive, sustainable and competitive transport offer from Germany to Turkey with a transit time of five to six days. We can thus cover a very long distance without reloading. This means that we can load the train once and drive it all the way to its destination without stopping.”
