train istanbul aleppo

It's still suspended because of construction of new high-speed line in Turkey, and is due to remain so until October at the earliest, perhaps longer.

The Istanbul-Adan-Gaziantep trains are also affected.

The alternative is to take the excellent daily air-con 10:30 Baskent Express to Ankara arriving 16:16, the daily overnight Cukurova Mavi train with sleepers Anakara depart 20:15 to Adana arriving 08:05, then a relatively short 4 hour daytime bus ride to Aleppo.

See www.seat61.com/Syria.htm</a> for Istanbul-Aleppo-Damascus info, and www.seat61.com/Turkey2.htm</a> for info on trains within Turkey.

Or you could fly Istanbul to Adana, then take the bus.

Or take an extremely comfortable bus all the way (changing buses in Antakya).
The bus is faster, at less than 24 hours, has pullman seats and stops every few hours for between 10 minutes - half an hour to give you plenty of eating/leg-stretching time. They also serve complimentary tea/coffee, and water on request.
I much prefer Turkish buses to trains. HOWEVER - my advice here would be to take the bus only to Antakya (Hatay) then take a service taxi to Aleppo because the border road is clogged with trucks and the route through by bus these days is extremely slow. A service taxi (shared with others) can get through in less than half the time.

thanks for your answer. i actually dont fly - so as an alternative i thought i would take the train to adana and from there the bus to antakya. you said the trains adana antep are also affected - would you know what that means? no trains, less trains ... if you more about that id be grateful for details
yours marco

The Istanbul-Ankara & Ankara-Adana trains are running normally, and the Istanbul-Konya overnight train is also running.

But the Istanbul-Adana-Gaziantep/Aleppo trains are not running.

So go Istanbul-Ankara-Adana by train, then use a bus for the relatively short section to Aleppo. That's the most comfortable and civilised option.