Istanbul Metro Challenge

[penguin]

On Monday the 4th of August, I visited every station on the Istanbul Metro!

I Started at Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı and ended at Hacıosman with a time of 10h42'45.2", significantly below what i was roughly eyeballing of 12h.

I did do this under Guinness World Record guidelines, so I'll send them my evidence when I can be bothered and fingers crossed they accept it. There's no existing record.

The number of stations is.... dubious at best. The English Wikipedia cites 159 - which is about right but there are a few uncertainties. For example, at interchange stations on the M11 (the most modern and deepest line, to the airport, has the vibes of an Erdoğan ego project) there are incredibly long tunnels through essentially shopping malls at Kağıthane and Gayrettepe, but the stations are still "connected". In the guidelines I handed to Guinness, I said that if two stations of the same name are "geographically connected" then they're the same station - I didn't really think about the gateline or anything when writing that. It's really odd, actually, because a lot of the interchanges are really close together - like at İkitelli Sanayi, the two lines are on parallel platforms like a Finchley Road- or Wembley Park-kinda situation, yet you have to tap out and in to transfer. Nonetheless, I visited both Gayrettepes and both Kağıthanes just in case. The stations often also can't decide which name they use - for example the interchange Şişli Mecediyeköy is marked as such on the map, but marked as simply Mecediyeköy on the M7 line diagram and Şişli-Mecediyeköy on the M2 line diagram; all the announcements seem to disagree similarly. I didn't even realise that Kirazlı Bağcılar, another interchange between M1b and M3, also went by just Kirazlı on the M1b, so I ended up adjusting my route by extending it to Kirazlı for that turnaround. And who on earth knows what's going on at Bakırköy İncirli! My time probably could've been significantly shortened if I'd not ended up visiting every station on every line, but that wouldn't really matter because there's no record to break, haha! Also worth noting that they're seriously moving mountains to extend the metro at a frightening pace - my record will very quickly become void.

Anyway, waffling aside and onto my route. You can view the map of just Metro lines here: https://www.metro.istanbul/Content/asse ... %C4%B1.pdf
If you're reading this in the distant future, you can see the map as I saw it on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20250726021 ... %C4%B1.pdf

Here is a shoddy diagram of my route: https://ibb.co/9PZ60Sf

I started in the East (because that's where I'm staying) and because there's only one rail link across (I did consider a ferry but the most often is every 20 minutes and it's significantly slower) I decided to do all of the East then all of the West. Thus I started at Sabiha Gökçen Airport (Hvl = Havalimanı = airport) and did the whole M4 in one. A small double-back at Kadıköy to the Marmaray from Ayrılık Çeşmesi, to Bostancı.

The interchange at Bostancı was incredibly poorly signposted. There was no indication at all of the metro from the Marmaray station. I asked someone if they knew and they pointed me back to the Marmaray station! I did eventually find it, through the help of Google Maps. This was a common theme - you don't really realise how good London's signage is until it's gone! Also.... Three completely unrelated stations called Bostancı. Not the most intuitive.

The whole M8 in one, then turnaround back to Dudullu and eastbound out to Samandıra Merkez. Somewhere about there I got stopped by the authorities - I think they were suspicious of my journey logbook (Guinness are so strict with the density of information you need to record) - and they asked me if I had a permit. I explained in my very poor Turkish that I was just riding the trains and paying my fares and I wasn't being disruptive and eventually they gave up and left me. Some very nice person took pity on me and gave me a couple of pieces of lokum (Turkish delight)!

I then did the whole of the M5 in one go, to Üsküdar, and took the Marmaray undersea link from there to Bakırköy. The new (2013 I believe) link is an absolute godsend and it's incredibly well-used, as the only rail link between the Europe and Asia sides. Bakırköy was a nightmare of a change, because there's absolutely no indication of where the metro is - it's labelled as an interchange but in reality it's about 500m away and completely unsigned. I did get there eventually.

Then a long (7 min - frequency is usually every 8-10min) wait down to Sahil and a turnaround (turnarounds at the termini tend to be quite quick) up to İSTOÇ (no idea what that stands for). Turnaround to Mahmutbey and the whole of the M7 in one go. I didn't realise that the section between Mecediyeköy and Yıldız is just a shuttle service from a different platform - no idea why, if anyone has any ideas! It runs the same frequency with the same stock....

Turnaround at Yıldız to Mecediyeköy then down on the M2 to Yenikapı. Along the M1b to Kirazlı (not stopping short as my plan was initially) then back to Otogar and the M1a to Atatürk Hvl. Turnaround to Yenibosna, turnaround at Ataköy, and then the whole M9 line in one fell swoop. I don't remember exactly but I think I got quite unlucky with the wait times there too.

Turnaround back to İkitelli Sanayi and the rest of the M3 to Kayaşehir. Then I took a bus, which was deeply deeply unpleasant, but a story for another day. It worked out to be a 15 minute wait and a 25 minute bus ride... Then I struggled finding the station at Arnavutköy and when I did it was an 18 minute wait (20 min headways). Tried and failed to find a loo then carried on down the airport line to Gayrettepe.

Thence up the M2 one stop to Levent, then an annoying change to the M6 (a grand total of 4 stations) and back. The Sanayi Mahallesi - Seyrantepe is just a shuttle service, which I kinda expected but still struggled to locate due to, surprise surprise, poor signage. Double back there and back on the M2 for a Hacıosman finish.

[al]

Sounds more of a challenge than normal, well done!