Ferries in Istanbul are a mode of public transportation within and surrounding the city of Istanbul, Turkey. There are three major ferry operators in the city: the municipally owned à Âehir Hatlarñ ("City Lines"), which operates traditional ; the privately operated ðstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri (ðDO) ("ðstanbul Sea Busses"), which operates high-speed urban and intercity services, and the privately owned Turyol which operates mostly urban services.
The city's largest and oldest ferry operator is the municipally owned à Âehir Hatlarñ ("City Lines"). Founded in 1851 as the à Âirket-i Hayriye (âÂÂThe Goodwill CompanyâÂÂ), à Âehir Hatlarñ operates the city's iconic white and orange ferries (). à Âehir Hatlarñ currently operates 30 ferries between 53 piers on 32 lines, serving both sides of the Bosphorus as well as the Princes' Islands. In 2023 à Âehir Hatlarñ transported 40 million passengers.
Istanbul Sea Buses (ðstanbul Deniz Otobusleri, ðDO) runs a combination of catamaran-type high-speed ferries and vehicle ferries within Istanbul and across the Sea of Marmara to provinces such as Bursa and Yalova. Ido was established in 1987 by the ðstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and was privatized in April 2011. Today, ðDO, maintains a fleet of 26 high-speed passenger ferries and 22 vehicle ferries serving 21 piers across the Marmara Region.
Another smaller private ferry company, Turyol, provides frequent services on routes from Eminönü, Kabataà Â, BeyoÃÂlu and Karaköy to piers at ÃÂsküdar, Haydarpaà Âa and Kadñköy, among others.
Boats have traversed the waters of the Bosphorus for millennia and until the opening of the first Bosphorus bridge in 1973, were the only mode of transport between the European and Asian halves of Istanbul. They continue to serve as a key public transport link for many thousands of commuters, tourists and vehicles every day.
The first private steam ferries (called ' in Turkish), crossed the Bosphorus in 1837. The first ferries were wooden paddle boats and were later replaced by iron and steel screw ships. In 1851, the à Âirket-i Hayriye [tr] (literally âÂÂThe Goodwill CompanyâÂÂ, as the Istanbul Ferry Company was originally called) was established by the Ottoman state. The à Âirket-i Hayriye, renamed à Âehir Hatlarñ in the early republican period. In 1937, à Âehir Hatlarñ was nationalised and came under the control of the state-owned Türkiye Denizcilik ðà Âletmeleri (TDð) (âÂÂTurkish Maritime Lines âÂÂ). The TDð was largely privatised in the late 90s and early 2000s and ownership of the à Âehir Hatlarñ was transferred to the ðstanbul Metropolitan Municipality in March 2006.
Several generations of ferries have served the city and many of the earlier ferries were built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow, Scotland. These white, black and yellow boats have gone on to become iconic in the modern popular culture of the city. One was featured in the James Bond film From Russia with Love, while more recently a new-generation and therefore historically inaccurate ferry appeared momentarily in the 2012 film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which was set in the 1970s. The last steam-powered ferry ran until 2003. A new generation of boats, designed by Fairfield but built in Istanbul, came into operation in the 2000s, enhancing the historic fleet.
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