Istanbul's M9 Atakoy-Olympic metro line opens

Istanbul's M9 Atakoy-Olympic metro line was opened by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) on Monday as elections approach after four years of construction delays.

 

This newly operational metro line connects key areas in the northwest of the city, including the Ataturk Olympic Stadium and industrial zones in Basaksehir, with residential areas along the Halkali and Ikitelli axis. 

 

It serves as a crucial backbone for east-west transportation, linking to major routes like the M1A Yenikapı-Ataturk Airport metro line, the B1 Halkali-Gebze suburban line, and the Metrobus network.

 

The first phase of the line, comprising the Bahariye and Masko stations, was inaugurated on May 29, 2021. 

 

It commenced operations between Bahariye and Olimpiyat stations, integrating with existing services at Ikitelli Sanayi, Ziya Gokalp, and Olimpiyat stations within the M3 operation. 

 

The second phase, connecting Atakoy and Bahariye seamlessly, commenced operations as a single stretch on March 18, 2024. 

 

 

This milestone marks a significant advancement in the city's public transportation network, which now offers commuters faster and more efficient travel options.

 

Various political parties have been stepping up their works as Türkiye's municipal elections approach.

Istanbul's mayoral vote is historically significant and the city is considered, politically, the most important administrative region in the country.

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is, therefore, eager to recapture Türkiye’s biggest metropolitan, as well as the capital, Ankara, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) this March.

 

“We are preparing for elections where we have no choice but to win with a crushing landslide,” Erdogan told the provincial heads of the AK Party on Thursday. “Our goal is to bring back real municipalism to all cities, especially Istanbul and Ankara, that have been grappling with a lack of services for the past five years.”

 

The AK Party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara, as well as five megacities, to the CHP in the last local elections of 2019 for the first time in 25 years.

 

A controversial rerun handed Istanbul to CHP’s Ekrem Imamoglu, who now faces the risk of a political ban in an ongoing lawsuit. With his trial postponed to April 2024, the popular mayor is looking to run for a second term after leading a coup to replace CHP Chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu with his favored man Ozgur Ozel last month.

 

Erdogan lamented that Istanbul has fallen into disrepair under Imamoglu and begun exhausting its residents, citing CHP’s “failure to produce any works or even continue projects launched by the AK Party.”

 

The AK Party is choosing its mayoral candidates through extensive voter satisfaction surveys and public opinion polls, the president said, adding that discussions were under way with People’s Alliance partner, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to cooperate in major cities.

 

“The AK Party's vision is always distinctive. We owe it to our citizens to choose our candidates with a mindset free of personal political clout-chasing. We will work day and night until the elections for this,” Erdogan said.

 

After the May polls, the AK Party refreshed cadres, replacing 52 provincial chairs and over 400 district chairs. The party has been focused on the upcoming vote for over five months. It conducted surveys in big cities run by opposition parties to determine major problems being faced by citizens.

 

In Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, the most prominent issues were high living costs, transportation, irregular migration and infrastructure problems.

 

Last week, the party also held an online vote asking some 150,000 members their opinions on the tenures of current AK Party mayors.

 

Between Nov. 9 and Nov. 22, the party registered applications for mayor hopefuls, whose names will likely be announced in the first half of December, according to Deputy Chair Hamza Dag.

 

Erdogan has instructed his party to seek candidates with a good public image, “not candidates simply favored (by political lobbies).”

 

In Istanbul, the AK Party’s campaign will focus on urban transformation, an ambitious nationwide project to replace crumbling old buildings with new ones. Istanbul is among the cities under imminent risk of earthquakes and Türkiye stepped up efforts to speed up the transformation project after the Feb. 6 earthquakes, which killed thousands in Türkiye’s southeast.

 

 

Source: Newsroom