Although it is a state which intensely faced the effects of the economic crisis, Greece tries to rethink its investment priorities. For this purpose, the authorities focus on the urban transport infrastructure, being aware of its importance in response to the challenges determined by the increase of mobility demand, by the projects’ effect in the national economy.
The public transport in the capital Athens includes all modes of transport (underground, tram, buses and trolleybuses, suburban lines), its market share increasing from 25% in 2003, to 35% in 2009. The projects for the optimisation of transport services, the infrastructure modernisation and extension have been the main factors which determined the increase of the public transport services share.
The capital’s development strategies include programmes for the optimisation of public transport, including the construction of new infrastructures. As regards the underground network (3 lines, 49 km), the authorities have announced that they plan to extend the existing infrastructure and to develop another line. In the beginning of April, the underground in Athens added two stations, as extension of line 2 to the west of the city. The two new stations will allow the diminution of the travel time to the centre of Athens to 10 minutes, and the traffic flow estimated for the new stations is up to 60,000 passengers/day. The extension of line 2 to the south of the city will be completed in July, when another four stations will be inaugurated, and the line 3 will be extended by a station this autumn. For the extension of line 3, EIB has announced the grant of EUR 200 Million (representing the second batch for the underground system).
“The three stations will serve 75,000 passengers/day. The citizens using this section will benefit from a direct and fast connection to the opposite part of Athens in less than an hour. The project is an essential one as regards the optimisation of public transport services and will decidedly contribute to the traffic decongestion”, declared the CEO of Attiko Metros, Christos Tsitouras.
Likewise, after four years of delays, the CEO of Attiko Metro, Christos Tsitouras, and Mr. Dimitrios Dinopoulos, representative of concessionaire Themeli finally signed the contract for the extension of the Athens light railway network to Piraeus Port. The EUR 61.5 Million project is financed through the Greek National Development Programme and is included in the city of Athens’ 2007-2013 budget. The 5.4 km extension will connect the current terminus at Neo Faliro to the future Akti Posidonos station, which will serve the port. The extension will have 12 stations and will carry around 35,000 passengers per day. The line will be commissioned in February 2015. Attiko Metro has also allocated EUR 45 Million for the purchase of 25 new low-floor vehicles.
Besides these projects, Attiko prepares the studies for the construction of a new line (line 4), which will be 33-km long (29 stations) and will be built in the form of an “u”, to serve the most populated areas of the capital, the number of passengers being estimated at 500,000/day. The line will include the extensions of lines 2 or 3 and a central section consisting of 8 stations, the project requiring EUR 3.3 Billion investments. The first phase of the projects consists in the construction of 9 stations, the works value being estimated at over EUR 1 Billion.
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