The necessary infrastructure projects that will boost Suburban Railway’s operation in Thessaly

TRAINOSE blames OSE, concerning reports submitted at the Greek Parliament, asking for more frequent itineraries between Athens and Kalambaka, as well as the launch of the so-called Western Thessaly Suburban Railway.

OSE responding to questions by MPs from different political parties, stated that the responsibility for the development and organization of all rail services and rolling stock management, belongs to TRAINOSE adding that OSE as the infrastructure administrator will surely accept positively any request from railway services providers (in this case TRAINOSE) aiming to improve the interconnectivity of the area.

It should be noted that TRAINOSE expects the completion of the upgrade works on Athens-Thessaloniki corridor in order to launch its new passenger services with considerably shorter times (in the beginning the distance between Athens and Thessaloniki will be covered in about 4 hours and with the completion of all ECTS and signalling systems in 3 hours and 30 minutes).

In addition to this project, 2 electrification projects are being promoted for implementation in Thessaly. The first one is for Paleoparsalos-Kalambaka section. The tender is at an advanced stage, with the temporary underbidder being AKTOR. Here the contract awards are expected in the upcoming period. The second concerns Larissa-Volos section, for which the tender is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

With the completion of these projects, the electric trains will be able to access the entirety of the main corridor as well as its major branches in Central Greece, without the need to switch to diesel-powered trains.

However, according to the OSE’s response, these projects will allow the operation of a dense network of local suburban railway services between the major urban areas of Thessaly that will serve the most part of the Region.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com