Ankara–Konya YHT

The biggest week in Konya's year is a death anniversary. Rumi — Mevlânâ, the poet of the Masnavi — died in the city on 17 December 1273, and his followers call the night Şeb-i Arus, the wedding night: the night he went to meet the one he loved. Every year from 7 to 17 December Konya marks it with the sema, the turning ceremony of the Mevlevi dervishes, which UNESCO has listed as intangible heritage since 2008.

Getting there from the capital used to be a whole day. Before 2011 there was no direct railway between Ankara and Konya, and a train went the long way round, through Eskişehir and Afyonkarahisar, in more than ten hours. On 23 August 2011 Turkey opened its second high-speed line, 211 kilometres of new track from the junction at Polatlı, and the journey fell to under two.

Today the YHT — Yüksek Hızlı Tren, the high-speed train — leaves Ankara Gar for Konya six times a day, seven on Fridays to Sundays, and takes 2 hours 16 minutes. In fifteen years it has carried 22.8 million passengers, and about 3,500 make the trip every day.

Two kinds of train work the line. The HT65000 sets, built by CAF in Spain, have six cars and a top speed of 250 km/h; the HT80000 is Siemens' Velaro, eight cars and built for 300 km/h. Both are white with TCDD's colours down the side, and both carry economy and business class and a dining car. Which one comes is a matter of the day.

Ankara to Polatlı

The train leaves Ankara's high-speed station, opened in 2016 beside the old Ankara Gar, and runs west on the Istanbul line. It calls at Eryaman and, twenty minutes later, at Polatlı, the junction where the Konya line branches off. Near the town lies Gordion, the Phrygian capital, and the burial mound of the kings who ruled there.

Across the plateau

From Polatlı to Konya the line is new: 211 kilometres of double track, opened in 2011, with one tunnel, of 2,030 metres. The train runs south across the Anatolian plateau for an hour and a half without a stop. Near the end it passes Pınarbaşı, where the old line from Eskişehir comes in alongside, and Horozlu Han, a Seljuk caravanserai at the side of the tracks.

Into Konya

The first stop is Selçuklu, Konya's main high-speed station, the largest in Turkey after Ankara's. The train goes on a few minutes more to Konya Gar, the station the Anatolian Railway opened in 1896, where the Ankara and Istanbul trains end. Two a day continue to Karaman, stopping at Çumra, the town for Çatalhöyük.

When the line opened the timetable allowed about 1 hour 45 minutes; it now allows 2 hours 16.

Six trains a day each way, seven on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, all year. Times are TCDD's own, as of September 2026. Every train calls at Eryaman, Polatlı and Selçuklu; the two marked Karaman run on beyond Konya.

Ankara → Konya

Konya → Ankara

• From Istanbul four trains a day reach Konya, calling at Eskişehir and Selçuklu: from Söğütlüçeşme at 06:00, 10:40 and 15:10, arriving 11:21, 15:48 and 20:32, and from Halkalı at 07:05, arriving 13:13 and going on to Karaman. Back to Istanbul they leave Konya at 05:55, 08:55, 12:05 and 16:39.
• For Çatalhöyük, the 06:10 from Ankara reaches Çumra at 08:54, and the 15:30 at 18:14.

The timetable is on TCDD Taşımacılık's Ankara–Konya page (opens in a new tab), where each train's stops are listed by date.

Tickets are sold by TCDD Taşımacılık, on its booking site and app and at station ticket offices, for Ankara to Konya or any stretch of it. There are two classes: 485 TL in economy and 730 TL in business, with no discount fares in business.

The trip is two and a quarter hours, so economy does the job. From Friday to Sunday, when a seventh train is added each way, book the evening departures a few days ahead. Checked in September 2026.

A pass covers this train. Turkey is in the Interrail and Eurail area, and Interrail's table of railway companies lists TCDD Taşımacılık's high-speed trains, the YHT, among what a pass includes, and does not exclude them. Ask at a TCDD ticket office for the seat before you travel.

For a return trip to Konya on its own a pass is not worth buying. It earns its keep on a longer journey through Turkey that adds the high-speed line to Istanbul and the night trains east from Ankara, except the Turistik Doğu Ekspresi, which the table excludes. Checked against Interrail's railway-companies table, last updated 28 August 2026, in September 2026.

Most of what Konya is known for stands close together in the old centre: the Mevlana Museum, and Alaeddin Hill, with the Seljuk madrasas at its foot. Sille is on the edge of the city, and Çatalhöyük is a day out by way of Çumra.

In Konya stay near the Mevlana Museum, where the old city's monuments are within a walk of one another. In Ankara, the hotel in the high-speed station building puts the platforms directly beneath you for an early train.