Turkey Eastern Express / Lake Van Express

[Geochemwill]

Considering the recent earthquake in south eastern Turkey/Syria, I’m struggling to find out the impact on infrastructure outside of that immediate region. I’m planning a trip from Ankara to Lake Van then from Kars back to Ankara in mid May and haven't seen anything conclusive whether these trains are running now, or even likely to be running by then. Does anyone happen to know the current status of these services?

 

[Alfonso]

I'd be very surprised if any of these routes are affected. They're. Avery long was from the earthquake zone

 

[dutchflyer]

Note that esp. this line is after some heavy promotion locally become a kind of pet wanted thing to do for many Turks. It has a daily normal train-expect heavy delays and a I think weekly (maybe differ per season) more expensive kind of touristy one.
As I was in fact looking for same info-impact on the trains of the quake I found there are, in case you have not found them or others to look: 2 quite good websites on TCDD/Turkish trains, one by a US-travelguidebook writer Brosnahan (he did the very 1st LP guidebook) and one by an (now on pension I think) former TCDD_official. Trainsofturkey and like Turkeytravelguide (google will show these as in the above 3). Sorry-right now have no exact names at hand. I strongly recommend a look at those! And in case youre planning for soon: wait till after ramadan has finished and even more the big celebration after.

 

[Geochemwill]

Thank you for this info @dutchflyer and @Alfonso, it’s a trip I’ve wanted to do for some time but only now starting to make plans. I’ve already read/watched online but was struggling with the current status. I’ll certainly check out those three resources.

 

[WideRanger]

The Lake Van route is definitely working - a colleague took it last week.