Ottoman Railway Company
defunct railway company based in İzmir
The Ottoman Railway Company, commonly referred to as the İzmir–Aydın Railway (Turkish: İzmir-Aydın Demiryolu), is the oldest railway in Anatolia and second oldest railway in the Ottoman Empire. The railway was built by a British company to transport mineral and fruit (primarily figs) from the Aydın plain to the Port of İzmir to be exported.
The railway also played an important role in operating commuter rail service throughout southern İzmir. By 1912 the railway was operating 3 commuter routes within the city. The main goal of the ORC was to build a line to Aydın, however once the railway got concessions to extend their mainline, they quickly started to dominate the rail industry in İzmir. They extended their mainline to Denizli and then to Eğirdir by 1912 as well as building branch lines to towns in the İzmir province. However their initial goal of reaching Konya in Central Anatolia was never achieved. The ORC continued to operate as a regional railway up until 1935, when the Turkish State Railways absorbed it.
History
The ORC concession was given on 22 September 1856 to build and operate the line between İzmir (then known as Smyrna) and Aydın. The concession was to last for 50 years from 1 October 1860, the date originally agreed for the opening of the line.
“Ottoman Railway Company” enters the record as defunct railway company based in İzmir. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ottoman, Railway and Company can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7102365. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1912, 1935, 1856 and 1860.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ottoman Railway Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.