Haydarpaşa Station

Haydarpaşa Station was, during the time of Agatha Christie, Istanbul's main train station on the Asian side. Trains from Istanbul to destinations in the south and east of Turkey departed from here. Most notable among these was the Taurus Express which connected Istanbul with Baghdad and Damascus. Passengers from Europe arrived at Sirkeci Station on the European side of the city and then crossed by ferry to Haydarpasa for their onward train journeys.

The station was first established in 1872 with its first passenger service in 1890. In 1909, a new station building built along ornate neo-classical lines was inaugurated. A matching ferry terminal was also built in 1917. Both structures are still standing. At one time Haydarpasa Station was the busiest railway terminal in Turkey, however the station was severely damaged by fire in 2010. Although the damage was repaired, the station was then closed to traffic in 2012 to facilitate restoration works and the construction of the Istanbul to Ankara high speed rail as well as the Marmaray (an urban line that links the two sides ot Istanbul via a tunnel under the Bosphorus). Although these works were completed, the new trains did not stop at Haydarpasa but at other stations. This led to protests and controversy which obliged the authorities to commit that the station would eventually be reopened to traffic. Plans were also disrupted when works in the vicinity of the station uncovered several important archaeological sites. The future of the station is uncertain. The current talk is for it to be converted into a cultural venue but the possibility of it being reopened to traffic has not been rule out.

Agatha Christie and Haydarpaşa Station

In both Murder on the Orient Express and Absent in the Spring, the passengers travelling from Baghdad and Aleppo for Europe would naturally have alighted at Haydarpaşa Station when they reached Istanbul but this station is not mentioned by name. The station is also not featured in any film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. In the 1974 adaptation, the producers shot the opening scenes on location but opted to use a much more "rural" scene, with passengers cars seen descending a small street Salacak Iskele Caddesi and then boarding a ferry at Salacak Pier in Üsküdar to cross the Bosphorus.

Agatha Christie herself passed through the station on several occasions and described her first experience in An Autobiography when she travelled to the Near East on her own in 1928. After arriving in Istanbul and having spent a few days at the Totkatlian Hotel, she "was called on by Cook's representatives in the most conventional fashionand taken across the Bosphorus to Haidar Pasha, where I resumed my journey on the Orient Express." Here she meant the Taurus Express. According to Christie, "I was glad to have my guide with me, for anything more like a lunatic asylum than Haidar Pasha Station cannot be imagined. Everyone shouted, screamed, thumped, and demanded the attention of the Customs Officer." Here she found Haydarpasa a highly educational experience. She described how her Thomas Cook's guide demonstrated the technique of securing priority and the attention of the customs officer by waving a one pound note. Later, when she sought to tip her guide with some Turkish money, he had replied "with some firmness, 'It is better that you keep that money. It may be useful. You give me another pound note.' Rather doubtful about this but reflecting that one has to learn by experience, I yielded him another pound note, and he departed with salutation and benedictions."

Haydarpaşa Station as seen in 2012. The ferry terminal and pier can be seen in the foreground.