The Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group is building a tunneled funicular railway in Istanbul from the Bosporus port of Kabatas, where ferries and pleasure boats dock at the Yenikapi mole, to the subway, bus and tramway terminal of Taksim high above sea level. The rail link can transport 7500 passengers an hour. The Taksim-Kabatas rail link has two trains of two carriages each. Each carriage has a driver’s compartment. The trains are always accompanied.

The 550-meter-long (1,805 ft), single-track line covers a vertical rise of 73 m/240 ft with a maximum gradient of 22 %. The trains pass each other in the middle of the stretch by means of an Abt-type passing loop. In view of the low gradient in the stations a haul rope and a counter rope are used.

The station platforms only have a 5 % gradient so wheelchair users have no problem twenty hours a day, which means that each vehicle clocks up around 80,000 kilometers/50,000 miles a year.