Boasted as something which will change commuters life in Istanbul, Marmaray, the world's first underwater rail link between two continents, was in trouble the very first day of service. The train stopped for 20 minutes due to a power blackout on the Asian side of the city, giving passengers difficult times on Wednesday morning.

Marmaray was opened on Tuesday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It was a dream the Ottoman sultans had more than a century ago: linking Asia to Europe.

The project aims to ease İstanbul's heavy traffic and reduce travel time between the two sides of the Bosporus to four minutes. Marmaray is said to be able to carry 75,000 passengers per hour and around 1 million passengers per day.The tunnel cost some TL 5.5 billion ($2.8 billion). It is one of Erdoğan's "mega projects".