Cost for the new railway line Thessaloniki-Kavala-Ksanthi at 1.25bn euros

One of the major infrastructure projects of the future in the country will be the new, single-track railway line Thessaloniki-Kavala-Xanthi. This line will be running -for the most part- by the cost, along Egnatia Motorway, aiming to reduce time distance considerably.

As it is already known, it is part of the so-called Sea2Sea project, envisaging the connection of the ports of Thessaloniki, Kavala and Alexandroupolis with those of Burgas, Varna and Ruse in Bulgaria. The Greek part will be also section of the so-called Railway Egnatia.

The cost for this new line is estimated at approximately 1bn euros, concerning the construction about 215 km of a new electrified line, divided into 2 sections.

The first one will be starting from Thessaloniki reaching up to Nea Karvali. It will have a length of 180 km and for its construction major technical projects will be required. Its initial cost is estimated at 1bn euros. The studies are carried out by OSE. The second section will be between Nea Karvali and Toxotes Xanthi, where the line will connect to the existing infrastructure to Alexandroupolis. It will have a length of 35 km while there is a provision for a new station at the new port harbor of Kavala, in Nea Karvali. This project has an estimated budget of 250m euros.

In its entirety, the new line will be electrified, with signaling and ETCS systems allowing speeds up to 200 km/h. The new line will reduce the distance between the 2 cities (Thessaloniki and Kavala) by 130 km, reducing time distance considerably (Thessaloniki-Xanthi in less than 2 hours and Thessaloniki-Alexandroupolis in 3 hours).

For Nea Karvali-Toxotes section, final studies have begun since August 2018. The ultimate goal now is to find funding for the realization of this project that will modernize the line on the east of Thessaloniki and potentially reduce time distance with Istanbul significantly too.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com