Istanbul–Ankara railway Istanbul–Ankara railway The Istanbul–Ankara railway () is a long electrified railway in Turkey. The line connects Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, to the capital and second largest city, Ankara; making it one the busiest railways in the country in terms of passenger and freight rail traffic. The railway runs parallel to the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway and in several sections, the railway hosts YHT high-speed trains. The line begins at Haydarpaşa Terminal in Istanbul and ends at Ankara railway station in Ankara. Before the opening of the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway in 2009, the Istanbul–Ankara railway was the busiest line in Turkey as
History of Ankara form of "Ankara". In 278 BC, the city, along with the rest of central Anatolia, was occupied by the Celtic speaking Galatians, who were the first to make Ankara one of their main tribal centres, the headquarters of the Tectosage tribe. Other centres were Pessinos, modern Balhisar, for the Trocmi tribe; and "Tavium", to the east of Ankara, for the Tolstibogii tribe. The city was then known as Ancyra. The Celtic element was probably relatively small in numbers; a warrior aristocracy which ruled over Phrygian-speaking peasants. However, the Celtic language continued to spoken in Galatia for many centuries. At the