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The Thessaloniki Metro will feature driverless trains, Source: EU in My Region

Thessaloniki gets ready for its metro launch in November

Thessaloniki gets ready for its metro launch in November

The underground rapid transit lines have been under construction for almost two decades due to various project delays

Thessaloniki is preparing to welcome its long-awaited metro, which will make it the second city in Greece to have this type of public transit. The official opening of the two lines has been scheduled for 30 November.

The Thessaloniki metro system will extend 9.6 kilometres and eventually serve 18 stations (currently, 13 are ready). The Y-shaped network consists of two lines, which run concurrently for a stretch of the route before splitting.

The trains of the metro will be driverless and remotely controlled, although there will be service attendants on board. The maximum carrying capacity will be 18,000 people per hour in each direction, for a total of 254,000 passengers.

Single-use ticket for bus and metro

Ahead of the metro launch, the Greek Deputy Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Nikos Tachiaos, announced that the urban mobility system will implement a unified ticket that will be valid for both the buses and the metro.

The new ticketing system, currently under evaluation, will feature personalized plastic cards and rechargeable paper tickets. Soon, ticket prices and discounts will also be announced.

The upcoming launch of the Thessaloniki Metro will be a welcomed and long-awaited addition to the city’s mobility landscape. Greece’s second-largest city is known for its road traffic congestion, and it is expected that underground transit will help alleviate this problem significantly.

Its construction began in 2006, but since then it has repeatedly been delayed. The 3.5-billion-euro project was originally expected to open to the public by 2012, however, numerous archaeological finds under Venizelou Street necessitated the stopping of the works.

The archaeological finds were a mix of building foundations, columns and coins dating back to the late Roman Empire (3-6 centuries AD). The artefacts will be displayed in a museum space at the Venizelos station of the metro.

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