New era for the Greek Railways with the completion of Athens – Thessaloniki corridor

Yesterday was a historic day for Greek Railways as with the delivery of the Angies-Domokos section, for the very first time, the country’s main corridor from Athens to Thessaloniki has a double-track raiilway line marking the passage of a means of transport that “dominates” Europe (but not our country yet) into a new era.

Yesterday, informally and in the presence of the administrations of OSE, ERGOSE, EESTY as well as the Secretary General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Thanos Vourdas, the first trial service took place on the line, passing also from the impressive Railway Bridge 26 in Ekkara, Fthiotida.

The new double-track railway line now offers much greater possibilities for the trains, passengers and freight services. What is expected to change immediately is that trains will no longer have to wait other trains coming from the opposite direction. The double-track line allows not only simultaneous train movement on both directions but can also support a sharp increase of trains running on the same direction.

As TRAINOSE CEO, Mr. Filippos Tsalidis stated at news website of Thessaloniki, with the operation of the electrification systems, the route between Athens and Thessaloniki could be covered in 4 hours and 15 minutes, time significantly lower compared to the current 5 hours and 30 minutes.

However, the final step to further reduction of the time distance to just 3 hours and 30 minutes will be made by completing and putting into operation the signaling and ETCS systems. With these, trains will be able to develop higher speeds (up to 200 km/h, which is the official speed limit in our country), with much greater safety and punctuality on the routes.

According to the latest estimates, this will have been compelted by the end of the year, thus concluding the major upgrade projects on the railway corridor.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com