Instead of being laid along the direct route eastwards from İzmir to Turgutlu, about fifty kilometers in length, the line built drew a wide arc advancing first to the north-west from İzmir, through its Karşıyaka suburb to whose foundation it contributed greatly, and curves eastwards only from Menemen on, crossing the former sanjak and the present-day province center of Manisa to join Turgutlu from the north. Belkahve Pass between Mount Nif and Mount Sipylus on the direct road from İzmir and Turgutlu must have been judged too difficult for a track at the time. This railway was later extended further eastwards reaching a total length exceeding seven hundred kilometers but the operating company preserved the name Smyrna Cassaba. The first concession under the name was granted to a locally based English entrepreneur named Edward Price, who founded the company and built the line, and sold it in 1893 to the Franco-Belgian group Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which extended it. The line was nationalized in 1934 by the young Republic of Turkey in the frame of a general move started in the 1920s regarding Turkey's railways.