Tender for Athens Metro trains’ refurbishment to be launched in June 2020

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Kostas Karamanlis, announced the launch of the tender for the refurbishment of 15 8th series trainsets.

As he noted, it is a necessary project for which the finalization of the tender documents is still pending as well as its inclusion in NSRF 2014-2020, both expected to be completed by June 2020.
“Once these are done, we will secure funding and start implementing it”, the minister added.

Mr. Karamanlis once again criticised the previous Gov’t, saying that “while they were theoretically talking about the project, they had not done what was necessary to implement it.”

As he said, the project was essentially abandoned as not only hadn’t it been included into NSRF, but it hadn’t even been proposed for funding.

The new tender for new buses’ fleet in Athens and Thessaloniki, in 2020

Answering a question, the Minister, after referring to a problematic and poorly designed tender that was eventually canceled by the independent authority, mentioned that a new tender will be planned.

As he revealed, the first major step has already been taken as a few days ago the Parliament approved the Ministry’s authority to launch the relevant tender.

This practically means that the new vehicles to be ordered will be property of the Greek state, allowing the Ministry to make an integrated plan for both Athens and Thessaloniki, according to the existing needs, allowing the bidding process to proceed faster and possibly in a more cost efficient way.”

The competition will be launched in a few months and by 2021, are expected to be incorporated in the fleets.