Thessaloniki Metro: The Main Line’s first tunnel is completed after a decade of digging

It took 10 years and 10 months to reach the historic moment when the TBM would finish digging the first of Thessaloniki Metro’s twin tunnels.

Ypodomes.com was there to record the festive atmosphere for the tunnel’s completion. TBM “Aktor” entered Analipsi Station, the Main Line’s terminal, just a few days ago, while the second TBM, “Hercules”, is due to reach its finishing line 2 months later, thus ending a “drama” that lasted almost 11 years.

The completion of the 9.6-km-long twin tunnels is not only a milestone for the project’s construction progress but signifies the beginning of the end, the final countdown for its operation.

What is left to be done now is the completion of all pending civil engineering works, railway tracks’ installation and the trains’ procurement in order for the project to enter its final stage in 2019, that would be the network’s trial operation, lasting roughly 16 months.

Thessaloniki Metro is expected to operate in Spring 2020 between Sintrivani and Nea Elvetia stations. The rest of the Main Line, encompassing New Railway Station and Venizelou, will operate in 2022 due to technical challenges that will delay the section’s completion by one year.

A safer timeframe will be defined after the completion of the studies related to the construction of Venizelou Station. Nevertheless, Attiko Metro is quite confident that the Metro project’s momentum will be maintained leading to the release of Kalamaria branch in 2021, just one year after the operation of the Main Line.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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