Greek railway infrastructure manager, Ergose, announced that the high-speed railway between Greek capital Athens and Thessaloniki was open and that it would be fully operational as of February. The high-speed railway will reduce travel time between Athens and Thessaloniki to just 3 hours and 20 minutes, from over 5 hours previously. The railway was commissioned after the finalisation of the modernisation of the first section Lianokladi-Domokos, close to Lamia city. Works on this section, considered the most difficult of the whole line, consisted in the replacement of the track on 21 km between Lianokladi and Domokos.
For now, only diesel trains are running on this section, but electric trains will also be put into operation right after the electrification and installation of signalling equipment on this segment will be completed. Therefore, Ergose has completed a significant project on the country’s main railway, Piraeus-Athens-Thessaloniki corridor. In September 2018, Greek railway passenger operator, TrainOSE, controlled, after the privatisation in 2017, by Italian company Ferrovie dello Stato, presented the high-speed trains to run on the new line. Called the Silver Arrow, Frecciargento ETR 485 train was manufactured by Alstom and has been running on the Italian high-speed network since 2012. The Frecciargento is capable to run at 250 km/h.
Photo: Ergose
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