Night train route
Van Gölü Ekspresi
Ankara → Tatvan · Türkiye
- Distance
- 1,267 km
- Fastest time
- 25 h 50 min
- Top speed
- 120 km/h
- Operator
- TCDD Taşımacılık
- Train
- TVS2000 sleeper & pullman cars
- Countries
- Türkiye
- In service since
- 1964
- Runs
- 2× weekly each way
Ends 1,267 km from Ankara at a ferry slip on Lake Van, where wagons bound for Iran are floated across Turkey’s largest lake.
The Doğu’s quieter southern sibling takes almost 26 hours to amble from Ankara to the shore of Lake Van, and devotees insist the second day is the best of Turkish rail travel. After the steppe cities of Kayseri and Sivas the train works south through the Euphrates headwaters, then winds along the Murat River canyons between Elazığ and Muş. It ends at Tatvan’s ferry slip beneath the 4,058 m Süphan volcano, where wagons for Iran are floated across the lake to Van.
Along the way
- Kayseri under Mount Erciyes
- Sivas steppe
- Malatya apricot country
- Murat River canyons past Elazığ
- Muş plain
- Lake Van ferry slip at Tatvan
More night train routes
- Nightjet Paris → Vienna
- EuroNight Stockholm → Hamburg
- Santa Claus Express Helsinki → Rovaniemi
- Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Paris → Venice
All sleepers serving these cities: night trains from Ankara · all 98 night trains.
More train routes in Türkiye.