OSE: the railway connection between Patra and Pyrgos to be reopened

Τhe project for the upgrade and reopening of the Patras-Pyrgos line will be auctioned within 2021, as it was revealed by the Deputy CEO of OSE, Mr. Athanasios Kottaras, who spoke to patrisnews.com.

As he said, the goal is the immediate reopening of the line at the moment -when the conditions allow it,- and he added that “we want to connect Pyrgos, Ancient Olympia and the other cities of Ilia with Patras and Athens by rail”. The project is part of the overall planning of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for the development of the country’s rail transport.

What will be included in the project

The specific study, which will be completed in the next few days, is now entering the final phase with the project being auctioned in the first quarter of 2021 and aiming at its immediate, includes the renovation and upgrade of the existing line that has been inactive for almost a decade. A budget of 45 million euros, which includes the renovation of the seven stations from Kato Achaia and specifically the stations in Lappa, Barda, Lechena, Andravida, Kavasila, Gastouni and Amaliada with a total length of 77 km.

Throughout the network, the infrastructure will be renovated and the sleepers will be replaced, which until now are made of wood, with concrete ones. In addition, 64 automatic level crossing systems will be installed and the duration of the route will be one hour.

Pyrgos-Kyparissia will follow

Mr. Kottaras even announced the reopening from Pyrgos to Kyparissia in the near future.

“The train can become very competitive over time and allow fast and safe travel and is environmentally friendly. Therefore, a new development era begins for Ilia with easy travel to cities, ports and of course to Ancient Olympia. We must not, however, waste any more time.

With hard work and utilization of money we will be able to change the abandoned image of the network and to revive these wonderful routes, contributing to the tourism development of Western Greece and the Peloponnese in general. We want and will be able to return the train to where it started 120 years ago and to deliver to the citizens of Western Greece a safe and fast means of transport… “.

Note that in the coming days works will begin on the line Katakolo – Ancient Olympia with a budget of 2.3 million euros and in December the contract will be signed for the complete renovation of the station in Pyrgos for 400,000 euros.

In the future, it is planned to convert the metric line to normal, a plan that is currently in the stages of initial programming.