In the Athens Metro we have line 1 which is the old electric one, and there we have 19 trains, of which four trains have not had air conditioning for 25 years, this is not a recent phenomenon, Infrastructure Minister Christos Staikouras told ERTNEWS.
The other 15 have air conditioning, but you know that there are frequent stops, the windows are also opened, so the performance is not as good as it should be.
On Lines 2 and 3 we have 52 trains, 20 of which do not have air conditioning.
The conclusion is that we have 24 wires that we will have to install an air conditioner, at a cost of approximately 39 to 40 million euros. Resources are being sought, they are a priority.
Renewal of trains
Referring to the renewal of the trains, he said that 14 trains of Line 1 will be renewed. There has been a contract since December 2022 with a contractor from a Spanish company. The first wagon was transported to Volos in June 2023 and since then the private individual, the contracting company, has requested a change in price and a change in the schedule due to the increase in materials, i.e. the crisis it is facing.
STASY has passed it to the Auditing Congress with the expectation that we will have fourteen new trains, with air conditioning, by the end of 2025.
The escalators and elevators in the Metro are between 15 and 25 years old. “Even if you maintain them, they often present a problem. I will never forget that during the Marathon that took place in Athens, the elevator in the Syntagma broke down and STASY employees had to help our compatriots with mobility problems up the stairs,” said the minister.
For their replacement, the cost is regarding 20 million, these resources are being sought, he added and emphasized: “we are trying to improve the everyday life of the citizen in the Metro in terms of air conditioning, escalators and elevators, a project worth regarding 60 million euros. This will take 12 months.”
Thessaloniki Metro
Referring to the Thessaloniki Metro, he assured that the 13 stations and trains will be delivered in November 2024 and the extensions to Kalamaria, + 5 stations, in the second half of 2025. In the next period of time there will be precise announcements of the date.
“Yesterday we had a meeting in Thessaloniki, on the occasion of our visit for the opening of the charging station for electric buses, for the course of the Fly Over the coordination, that is, to see how we can limit the actually existing and expected adverse consequences in the daily life of our compatriots.
According to the contractor company, now for the first time the facades have been rendered, they are working as they said, at full speed, they have 200 workers and 50 heavy vehicles, the goal remains the same, the project will be completed in 2027″.
Electric buses
Referring to the electric bus charging station inaugurated yesterday, he said it is a project not only for the present but also for the future.
“I remind you that in Thessaloniki there are 110 electric buses on the streets.
This for Thessaloniki, the positive footprint, is more visible compared to Athens, because the ratio of the fleet, as you understand 140 electric buses in Athens, 110 electric buses in Thessaloniki, is much more important.
A third of the bus fleet in Thessaloniki is now electric. The charging station we inaugurated yesterday is to light up 110 electric buses at the same time.
There has been provision for the next tender of 700 buses which will be aired these days and the tender in October for Athens and Thessaloniki, where there will be regarding another 200 buses for Thessaloniki.
There will also be a change of 200 trolleys, and for the first time there will be provision for 50 to 100 hydrogen buses, to enter this fuel which is starting to be a priority at the European level.
I will try to set a timing so that the seller knows when he will see the improvement in his daily life”, he said.
In Athens, the new charging station will be ready in the coming weeks. There are chargers, but the charging station due to some additional elements requested by the Court of Auditors, will be ready in the coming weeks. “In Thessaloniki it was, I will say it very popularly, a field and we made a charging station, in Athens it is in the existing train stations” noted the minister.
The Audit Court approved last week a tender for 211 new diesel buses in Eastern and Western Attica. I estimate that during the summer and certainly by the end of 2024 there will be 211 new buses in Eastern and Western Attica. Contractor company six KTEL of the country and two tourist offices.
“I say this because many times when we say give the buses to private individuals, we need to know who is interested inside and outside of Greece. We have two tenders, with the French and with the Italians for 300 natural gas buses in Athens, 100 of them are 18 meters and 200 are 12 meters. These tenders are over, they have been signed, we estimate that we will have the first buses in September and October, certainly by the end of 2025 we will have all 300 buses,” he noted.
So by the end of 2025 we will have 250 and 211 and 300, 761 new buses, emphasized Mr. Staikouras. “Also to complete the exercise a bit, we have over 300 Leasing buses in Athens, only National Leasing expressed interest, its proposal is being evaluated” he added.
So first, complete renewal of the bus fleet and reinforcement of routes.
Because it is not enough just to renew the buses, which is a significant improvement in the quality of the services provided, the bus must go on more frequent routes.
Accessibility
Referring to accessibility, he said that “I’m sorry to say it, but 39% of the bus fleet in Athens is not accessible for people with disabilities”. All the new buses will be accessible for the disabled, he stressed.
“We will try to balance between improving the quality and the frequency of the routes, for this we will withdraw the old ones but not equal to those that enter the routes, because in this way we will not improve the routes. We will therefore try to add a little strength and gradually withdraw the older ones”, he said.
Ticket evasion
Referring to ticket evasion, he said that in Thessaloniki, three out of four do not pay a ticket. In OASTH, in a company that is in a special liquidation regime.
Here we have made the following move: from the Skaramanga shipyards, which we were cleaning up, we took 60 workers and we are now training them to become inspectors in the OSY, so that we can strengthen the inspections.
Motorways
Referring to the major road projects, he said that the Aktio – Amvrakia project was launched, so you can get to Lefkada from Athens in just over three hours, and we actually delivered the E65 to Kalambaka.
By the end of 2025, the rest of the section from Kalambaka to Egnatia Odos will be finished. 56% of the northern section has already been completed.
In Patras – Pyrgos50% of the project has been implemented, 75 new kilometers, in the summer of 2025 the entire project will be delivered.
BOAK is progressing, Kasteli is progressing, the airport in Kasteli is 35% of the project completed, there will be flights in 2027 in Kasteli.
“The problem in Heraklion, Crete is acute. Yesterday I went to Heraklion, Crete for three hours and I only stayed at the airport to see the daily life there. It had 8.7 million passengers last year, plus 16% expected this year, let’s go for 9.2 million passengers, when Thessaloniki has five and a half million, to have an order of magnitude” said the minister.
Dams and investments
“Last week we went, with the prime minister, to Lefkada, on the issue of water supply but partly also of irrigation, because a very large project is starting for four regional units and three regions of the country that ends in Lefkada. A serious water supply problem in Lefkada is being tackled with new pipelines.
On July 22 we will go to Mytilini, where a dam will be built in Tsiknias.
These projects don’t happen suddenly and we have to have the funding for them, as you always see in every project, I also give you the amount, because it’s easy to hand out projects in the air, but if there is no funding, we end up as it has been done for example in Naxos, let’s talk regarding dams that were designed in 1992, the project was tendered in 2011 and still in 2024 there is no dam.
And it is understood that in many of them there is not even a provision for connecting to the networks.
Also, it’s not just regarding doing new projects, we have to deal with the maintenance of existing projects at some point. Whether we’re talking regarding dams, or we’re talking regarding bridges, or we’re talking regarding roads, because we saw what happened in Thessaly.”
Trains are safe
As Mr. Staikouras said: “We didn’t forget the trains, I just want to tell you, apart from the tragic accident you mentioned, later we had another problem, Daniel.
If you go by train, I often go Athens – Thessaloniki by train, following Domokos there is no double line, one line is completely gone. You therefore realize that there needs to be interventions of 463 million euros, half a billion Daniel’s damages in the railway alone. I leave out roads and bridges which are 900 million.
These fixes are not done in a day, along with the corresponding security systems. What I can tell you is that there is a lot going on in the train. We have given 25 million for graded crossings.
For this purpose we are creating a new organization. Now in Greece we will not have OSE, ERGOSE, GAIAOSE, we will have a group, the OSE and the private individual.
This way there will be better coordination. We have looked for resources from Europe and we are finding, I am optimistic, for the first time some funds for investment, so things are happening in OSE and citizens trust the railway.
I travel often and the carriages especially to Thessaloniki are full on many days. The point is that all of us who participate in the chain of the transport project must work to deal with the existing problems”.
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