When completed, the railway will accommodate mostly high-speed trains but also conventional passenger and freight trains and is classified as a high-standard railway (Turkish: Yüksek standartlı demiryolu).

The existing 152 km (94 mi) long railway link between Nurdağı and Gaziantep was constructed between 1935 and 1953.

Due to the policy shift for transportation in Turkey during the 1950s, the route was never upgraded to modern standards and follows a winding path that goes around the Sof Mountains, via Narlı, with an average transit time of around 2 hours and 30 minutes.

[5] The western end of the railway begins just north Nurdağı station, where it branches east and roughly parallels the O-52 highway while crossing the Sağlık plain, until heading into the Sof Mountains, just south of the village of Şatırhüyük.

The section after Başpınar, to central Gaziantep, was rebuilt and expanded to four-tracks between 2016 and 2022.