Sabriye Karan’s late husband worked for the Turkish national rail company for 32 years and her daughter Nehir grew up riding trains. After powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and damaged her home, she and Nehir moved into one.

“We never imagined we would live here,” said Sabriye, who has been sharing a two-bed sleeper cabin with 13-year-old Nehir for the past 18 days. “Normally, it’s a joy to travel on the train. But now it’s different.”

Turkish authorities have been racing to find accommodation for the more than 1.5 million people left homeless after February’s huge earthquakes, which killed some 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Survivors have been sheltering in tents, container homes, hotel resorts and even train carriages in Iskenderun, a port city in the province of Hatay, badly hit by the earthquakes.