Railway works from Aegion to Patras become a “Gordian knot”

With mutilple issues in the construction sector, the new Infrastructure Minister, Mr. Kostas Karamanlis, will be called upon to take a number of serious decisions.

One of the “time bombs” that he should definitely disarm, or otherwise described, a “Gordian knot” to be solved is the issue of the railway contracts that will bring the train to Patras and more specifically, on Aegion-Patras section.

Infrastructure works are currently running from Aegion to Rio today, while there are three contracts under development that are due to expired by the end of 2023.

If the county fails to meet the above deadline, there will be a serious risk for the reimbursement of all funds received from NSRF for the entire Athens-Patras corridor, back to the EU.

The irony here is that the funding is not the No. 1 problem but the fact that the necessary projects have not yet been auctioned, while we are already in the second half of 2019.

The necessary works

The two contracts from Aegion to Psathopyrgos and from Psathopyrgos to Rio, concern superstructure works, electrification, signaling, train control systems and stations’ construction works.

At this time, the Large-scale Project Envelope matures so as to be approved by DG Regio. Here, even marginally, we can anticipate completion of these projects, by the end of 2023.

But the situation is far more serious regarding the contracting between Rio and Aghios Dionysion, in the centre of Patras. This project has been designed to be fully underground at a length of 5 km.

In fact, the project was announced to be auctioned in early 2019 with an initial cost of 400m euros, likely to double, making it doubtful for the EU to finance it.

Many scientists have previously expressed their opposition to the full undergrounding of the line due to the unstable subsoil that can cause a large financial burden and large technical challenges.

However, what is crucial is that the modern, electric train to reach Patras one way or the other by the end of 2023.

Works on Kiato-Rio railway line

At this time there are three contracts that are underway from Kiato to Rio. The first concerns the “broom contract” from Kiato to Aegion, which has reached its trial phase and is expected, at some point, to enter commercial operation.

Nevertheless, the almost completed double-track line even though will be released with new stations, is not yet electrified. For this project there is a tender in progress since last year and the contract is estimated to be signed over the coming period.