Hatundere railway station

Hatundere station was originally opened in 1995 by the Turkish State Railways, along with the double-track Menemen-Aliağa railway.^[1] Hatundere was one of four stations built on the railway, along with Aliağa, Biçerova and Yanıkköy, and was built as a high-level station. With its completion, TCDD operated a regional trains service between Aliağa and Çiğli station in İzmir, where connections to local train service to Alsancak station could be made.^[3][4] In 1999 the State Railways and the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality unveiled plans for the Aliağa-Menderes railway corridor, which planned for a complete overhaul of the railway from Aliağa to Menderes, which would later be known as İZBAN.^[5][6] This included the electrification and modernization of all stations. Electrification work began on 18 December 1998 and was completed on 6 May 2004, although no electric trains were put into service.^[7] TCDD continued to operate regional railbus train service until 2006, when the construction of the Karşıyaka railway tunnel saw the closure of the railway between Çiğli and Basmane/Alsancak.^[8] While efforts were made to continue train service between Aliağa and Çiğli, these ultimately failed and Hatundere station was temporarily closed to passenger service.^[9][2] During its closure, certain upgrades to station were made, including the addition of turnstiles and PIS boards along with İZBAN signage. On 29 October 2010, İZBAN began testing its trains between Halkapınar and Aliağa with its new E22000 EMUs. On 30 January 2011, Hatundere reopened to passenger service with the extension of İZBAN's northern line from Çiğli to Aliağa.^[10] Hatundere originally saw hourly train service between Aliağa and Alsancak. This frequency increased to half-hourly on 15 May 2011, due to high demand.^[11]