Metro lines in Istanbul and Ankara will carry passengers for free on New Year's Day and January 1.
The decree of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was published in the Turkish State Gazette, Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uralooglu announced.
The free travel for the New Year, which will be implemented from midnight on December 31 to midnight on January 1, will also include the Marmaray train line, which runs under the Bosphorus and connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. Travel will also be free on the metro lines connecting the city to Istanbul International Airport.
It is planned that transportation will be free on New Year's Day in the capital Ankara on the Başkentray lines. And also the Izban metro line in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city on the Aegean coast.
A written statement from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality announced that public transport in the metropolis (metro, buses, metrobuses, city boats) will operate continuously and free of charge on New Year's Eve, as well as on January 1.
For New Year's Eve, it is planned to launch an additional 300 bus services and 221 services on the metrobus lines, the NTV television channel reported.
Security measures have also been increased. Additional security teams have been mobilized in various areas of the metropolis.