How to Buy Train Tickets in Turkey

You may be able to buy your intercity train ticket just before travel, but it's wise to reserve your place(s) at least a day or two in advance if possible.

During holiday times, it's essential to reserve in advance in order to secure the seat or compartment on the train you prefer.

Please note: train seat and sleeping-car berth reservations may be made no more than 15 days in advance, and tickets must be issued and paid for at the time of reservation. In other words, you can't reserve your seat or sleeping compartment more than two weeks in advance, and you must pay in full when you reserve your seat(s) or bed(s) on the train.

For sleeping cars, I'd recommend reserving at least several days in advance if possible. If you can reserve a week or two in advance, do it, just to be sure.

The Turkish State Railways (TCDD or DDY) website has an online reservation and ticket purchase function, but I've never been able to make it work. The online registration process is designed for Turkish citizens living in Turkey—as though foreign visitors were not an important segment of the traveling public in Turkey! It only works with computers using Microsoft products: Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. The process—even on the English-language section of the TCDD website—is at least partly in Turkish.

So we foreign visitors buy tickets in person at a TCDD station, or from a TCDD-authorized travel agency (of which there are not many).

You can reserve your tickets and sleeping car accommodations before arriving in Turkey, and pay by credit card, using this authorized agent for Turkish State Railways train (and sleeping car) reservations in Istanbul:

Tur-ISTA Tourism Travel Agency, Sultanahmet

It's a good idea to also use this full-service agency for your other travel arrangements in Turkey: hotels, tours, cruises, car rentals, guides, etc.

The prices you pay to an agency may be somewhat higher than the published fares to compensate the agency for its work in making your reservations and issuing your tickets. Selling train tickets is not really a profitable business.

Also, you must pick up your tickets from the office through which you bought them. Unfortunately, you cannot make a reservation through an agency and then pick up your ticket(s) at the train station (at least not yet).

Finally, agencies are not authorized to write international train tickets (for travel from Turkey to other countries). International tickets must be written by Turkish State Railways. But an agency may agree to pay for and pick up your ticket in exchange for a service fee (particularly if you are ordering other travel services from the agency at the same time.) The service fee is necessary because the agency must actually send a staff member to the railroad station to buy your tickets in your place.

Source : http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/trans/Train/buytix.html