Athens Metro Line 3 grows to reach Piraeus city center and the Port

Line 3 aka “Blue Line” of Athens Metro is going to expand with 6 more stations in the following years. The line now extending from Aghia Marina (Western Suburbs) to Doukissis Plakentias (Northern Suburbs) and the Airport is going to reach Piraeus, the capital’s major port soon.

According to the plans, the extension of Line 3 will have a length of 7.5 km, will be passing through the densely populated suburbs of Piraeus to end right at the heart of the city, at the Municipal Theatre (Dimotiko Theatro Station). The construction works that started in March 2012 are now in full progress, although with delays. This extension will mark one of the biggest increases of the Metro system’s passenger traffic, as an estimated 130,000 additional people will be using the new stations on a daily basis.

When the final countdown for the extension’s operation starts in 2019 (new section is expected to be fully operational by 2021), the 50-km-long line will be featuring 27 stations, connecting the Airport with the Port. Additionally, the trip duration between those will be drastically reduced to just 1 hour, compared to 1 hour and 45 minutes now.

Essentially this extension, will facilitate considerably the traffic between the 2 biggest entrance points of the country and is expected to boost the emergence of Piraeus as home port.

Large-scale transportation hubs

This extension will create 2 major transportation hubs, first of which is Piraeus; the advent of Line 3 along with the existence of numerous buses, the new Tram Line and the terminals of Line 1 and Suburban Railway within a radius of 100 m., will undoubtedly make Piraeus Port area a strategic junction.

The second one will be Dimotiko Theatro (Municipal Theatre), although of a smaller scale, bringing together the Tram, Line 3’s terminal and buses.

The benefits

Athens Metro Line 3 will be also serving Aghia Varvara, Koridallos, Nikea and Maniatika. What is really beneficiary for these areas, is the estimated decrease of the vehicles’ traffic (more than 30,000) and the subsequent reduction of the air pollution.

When completed, the integration of Athens Metro Line 3 and the Tram will bring multiple modifications of burdened bus lines, currently providing poor services in several neighbourhoods, thus improving substantially their quality and frequency, while improving traffic conditions. Finally, for the very first time, both Piraeus’ and Athens’ commercial centres will be directly connected with Metro and Tram providing seamless bidirectional traffic.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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