Tender details & funding for major railway upgrade project from Athens to Peloponnese are being finalised

The upgrade project of the railway section from Liosia to Corinth by the Hellenic Railways Organization is entering the starting line. The goal is to have the double track operational again by 2028, including the signalling, telecontrol, and electromechanical installations of the tunnels.

As part of the project’s maturity, the Hellenic Railways Organization is drafting the tender documents for the new facilities, while the European program 2021-2017 has already submitted a financing proposal for the double railway line SKA-Kiato.

The latest development is hiring a technical consultant to update the cost-benefit analysis of the upgrade project for the double railway line from Liosia to Corinth. In this section of the network, the tunnels will be certified, the signalling system, which has collapsed for over a decade, will be restored and modernized, and the ETCS L1 will be upgraded to interoperability baseline 3 to align with current European standards.

The double railway line inaugurated in the second half of the 2000s needs to reinstall its electrical and mechanical systems, primarily due to thefts.

Weeks ago, from the parliamentary podium, Deputy Minister of Transport Christina Alexopoulou addressed the issue, stating that “there are ‘issues’ on this particular railway line that ‘are due overtime to continuous interfering behaviours of individuals acting in the area and to exogenous factors’.” However, she emphasized that “the political leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is working hard, methodically, and decisively to enhance the level of safety” in order to resolve these issues.

We should recall that the railway projects proposed for inclusion by our country are the upgrade of the SKA-Oinoe section, the upgrade and electrification of the Thessaloniki-Promachonas line, the Alexandroupoli-Orménio section, and the railway connection to the port of Patras, with the latter two included in the large package of projects by ERGOSE.

In the case of the Liosia-Corinth project, Hellenic Railways Organization wants to prepare for the project to mature quickly and not lose valuable time. If all goes well and the project is included in CEF II, the tender could feasibly take place this year, and if there are no delays, as estimated by Ms Alexopoulou, it could be completed by 2028.

Let’s not forget that the SKA-Kiato section is part of the country’s second most important axis, the Athens-Patras axis. After Kiato, work is being carried out in two separate contracts by ERGOSE. The first is from Kiato to Aigio for the installation of electrification, and the second is for the operation of the new double line from Aigio to Rio with new stations and necessary systems.

If there are no delays, these two projects will be completed by 2026. Therefore, the restoration of the systems on the Liosia-Corinth section is necessary for the smooth operation of the line by then.

Simultaneously, there is great interest in the fate of the last section of the Athens-Patras line, namely the Rio-Neos Limenas Patras segment. The first request submitted to the CEF was unsuccessful, and now it is being tried for the second time.

If approved, the project, which includes undergrounding the lines over 5.1 kilometres, will proceed to implementation. The question is, what will happen if the green light is not ultimately given by the CEF II. Patras has been outside the national railway network for 14 years.

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