Thessaloniki Metro: New circular line to connect the entire city

A new proposal was presented yesterday for Thessaloniki’s Metro system, by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Christos Spirtzis. In his presentation, he revealed, for the first time, the connection of the 2 future branches of the Main Line to the Western Suburbs of the city with a circular line.

The new line will be starting  from Thessaloniki New Railway Station, it will be passing from the stations of Eptalofos, Menemeni, Kordelio, then it will head North with the stations of Evosmos, Omonoia (it could be also named Ilioupoli) and turning Southeast, it will be also serving Polichni, Stavroupoli, Aghia Varvara, Neapoli, will be intersecting with Main Line’s “Dimokratia” Station, finally terminating at the New Railway Station.

This new plan includes a total of 9 stations with a length 10.9 km. The project has an initial cost of around 1bn euros. What is important, is that there is an alternative route to the North that goes all the way to the Ring Road, while for the Eastern section, there is an alternative route that passes through “Pavlos Melas” Army Camp.

How it will operate

According to safe information from Attiko Metro,  this new circular line will be a part both of the Main Line and Kalamaria Branch. More specifically:

The trains starting from Nea Elvetia Station (Main Line) or Mikra (Kalamaria Branch) will be reaching New Railway Station, going further on to Dimokratia Station and terminating in the East (New Elvetia Station on the Main Line and Mikra of Kalamaria Branch).

This means that the Metro trains will be covering the entire city’s perimeter, thus interconnecting the urban grif from one end to the other. Preliminary works for this major project are expected to begin this year, in anticipation of its future bidding.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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