IN Brief:
- Kalyon and Makyol will deliver the first phase under a TL33.3bn contract.
- The route will connect major health, education, transport, and sporting destinations.
- Main construction is expected to begin in 2026 ahead of opening in 2029–30.
Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality has advanced the first phase of the city’s light-rail system after a TL33.3bn construction contract was signed with the Kalyon-Makyol partnership.
Running from Akyazı in the west to Trabzon Airport in the east, the initial route will establish an urban transport corridor through the principal developed area along the Black Sea coast.
Major destinations on the alignment include Trabzon City Hospital, the city’s football stadium, Meydan Park, the intercity bus terminal, Karadeniz Technical University, and the airport.
The Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s Directorate General for Infrastructure Investments led the procurement. Main construction is expected to begin during 2026, with the first phase targeted for opening in 2029–30.
As design and package boundaries have developed, the corridor has been described at between approximately 15.5km and 16.5km. Works will include guideway construction, stations or stops, power, signalling, controls, utility diversions, public-realm interfaces, and supporting operational infrastructure.
Trabzon occupies a constrained coastal strip, with steep terrain rising inland and major roads carrying concentrated east-west traffic. Integrating a continuous rail alignment into that corridor will require construction around an already intensive mix of transport, commercial, residential, and institutional uses.
Access to homes, businesses, the airport, university, hospital, and stadium must continue while guideway, station, and utility packages progress. The programme will therefore depend on carefully sequenced work zones rather than a single continuous construction front.
Utility diversion is likely to become an early source of programme risk. Water, drainage, electricity, telecommunications, and gas infrastructure commonly occupy the same corridors required for foundations, tracks, platforms, and traction-power systems.
Reliable surveys and coordinated diversion design will be required before major excavation proceeds. Differences between historic records and physical conditions can delay civil works and force redesign once construction is under way.
Traffic management will have to accommodate lane restrictions, junction changes, pedestrian diversions, and temporary access arrangements across several years. Poorly coordinated staging could transfer congestion into surrounding streets and obstruct the same public institutions the route is intended to serve.
Although an urban railway can improve long-term corridor capacity, its construction imposes immediate pressure on road users, businesses, and local services. Maintaining public confidence will require clear phasing, visible progress, and dependable access arrangements throughout the programme.
Passenger demand will vary considerably between the hospital, university, airport, city centre, and stadium. Daily commuting patterns will sit alongside flight schedules, medical appointments, and concentrated match-day peaks.
Station and public-realm design must consequently address more than average passenger numbers. Crowd management, emergency access, bus and taxi interchange, pedestrian movement, cycling, disabled access, and surrounding road capacity will all affect the operation of individual stops.
The contract contributes to a wider European and regional pipeline of light-rail construction as cities seek additional transport capacity without widening roads through developed districts. Such projects remain highly exposed to land access, utilities, inflation, construction disruption, and systems integration.
Completion of the civil engineering will not create an operational railway on its own. Vehicles, power, communications, signalling, depot equipment, testing, staff training, and safety authorisation must converge before passenger services can begin.
Commissioning should therefore be developed as part of the main delivery programme rather than appended after construction. Interfaces between the civil contractor, systems suppliers, vehicle manufacturer, utility companies, and future operator can determine whether physical completion leads promptly into trial operation.
The first phase is intended to establish the core of a wider network, so decisions concerning track geometry, power architecture, platform dimensions, controls, and depot capacity will affect the cost and compatibility of future extensions.
With the main contract now in place, mobilisation, final design, access arrangements, and utility preparation will set the early pace. The programme’s progress will depend on whether construction can advance through one of Trabzon’s most heavily used corridors without allowing disruption and interface risk to overwhelm the planned timetable.
