The Train That Never Comes to Bursa: So How Were the Black Sea Mountains Crossed?

Over the past 20 years, Türkiye has revolutionized its transport infrastructure. Dual carriageways, airports, tunnels, bridges… most of the hundreds of billions of dollars in investment materialized. Massive projects rose in every corner of the country. Yet one question still echoes across Bursa: why doesn’t the high-speed train come to us?

Bursa — a giant in industry, a leader in exports, a city with tourism potential — is still not connected to Istanbul or Ankara by high-speed rail. You know that train running between Istanbul and Ankara at 300 km/h — Bursa still only watches it from afar. And no one gives a convincing answer to why.

“Geographic difficulty,” they say. Yes, there are mountains, valleys and forests around Bursa. Tunneling is not easy, and it is costly. But looking at what has been built in the Black Sea region, this argument loses its credibility.

Take the Zigana Tunnel, for instance. A massive twin-tube tunnel, 14.5 kilometers long, on the Trabzon-Gümüşhane road. It was bored straight through the mountains. The cost of this tunnel alone was around $530 million (General Directorate of Highways, 2023). The Ovit Tunnel, on the Rize-Erzurum line, is 14.3 kilometers long. The toughest rock types, avalanche risk, landslide zones… and it was completed. It cost roughly $1.1 billion (TCDD, 2022).

Airports too. Ordu-Giresun Airport was built by filling in the sea — a full 36 million tons of stone were poured. Cost: $450 million. Rize-Artvin Airport cost $2.2 billion. The waves of the Black Sea were tamed, but Bursa’s rails still haven’t been laid.

So let’s ask: is Bursa harder to cross than the mountains of the Black Sea?

The most difficult stretch for a high-speed line to Bursa is the Yenişehir-Osmaneli route. The terrain is difficult, true. But for this 80-kilometer line, the total length of tunnels and viaducts that need to be built is around 20 kilometers. The project’s total cost is roughly $5 billion — the same order of magnitude as 2-3 of the major Black Sea projects. But the difference is this: those projects there were completed; the one for Bursa hasn’t even started in 12 years.

In Türkiye, the average cost of high-speed rail construction per kilometer is $50-70 million. On the Bursa line, this figure rises to $80-90 million because of the terrain. But experts note that the economic contribution this line would provide would exceed $600 million a year (Development Bank of Türkiye, 2024). The investment would amortize itself within 8 years. The multiplier effect on logistics, exports, tourism and the labor force would be far greater still.

But this is not only about economics. A high-speed train is not just a means of transport. Once that train arrives, the Bursa-Istanbul journey drops to under 1 hour. Young people gain easy access to universities in Istanbul. Day-trip meetings become possible for the business world. The number of tourists coming to Uludağ rises 30-40%. Road haulage decreases, carbon emissions fall. In short, bringing high-speed rail to Bursa means connecting this city not just to rails, but to the future.

But sadly, a project put out to tender five times in 12 years has been cancelled three times. Funding shortages were cited. Then billion-dollar highways were built in other cities. In Bursa, it isn’t just a train that’s waiting. A city is waiting.

This is essentially inequality in transport policy drawn onto the map. And on that map, Bursa’s outline is faded. If this investment still hasn’t started, the problem by now is not the budget; it is political will.

Every Bursa resident reading this today knows this city is missing its train. But this isn’t just about transport. It’s about equal opportunity, regional justice, and planning vision. Why does the will that bored through the mountains of the Black Sea fall silent at the foothills of Uludağ?

Perhaps the most painful part is this: this silence no longer stems from the train not having arrived, but from the belief that it never will. That’s why this piece is a call: this city does not just want rails. This city wants what it is owed.

Kağan ARDA