Rail projects getting on track

Railway projects worth more than 200 million euros are getting on track this week, aimed at upgrading Greece’s network. This concerns the Rododafni-Rio project in the Peloponnese, which is expected to bring the railway closer and faster to Patra, and the Palaiofarsalos-Kalambaka project in Thessaly.

On Tuesday the contract for the construction of the Rododafni-Rio section was signed with the Terna-Mytilineos consortium at the facilities of railway infrastructure company ErgOSE in the Panagopoula railway tunnel in Patra, in the presence of the prime minister.

This project, which is part of the Kiato-Patra line, includes the construction of 28.8 kilometers of double-track railway infrastructure, three stations (Psathopyrgos, Arachovitika and Rio), four minor stops as well as the electromechanical facilities inside the Panagopoula tunnel.

At the same time, electrification and remote-controlled signaling projects are also under way, which are expected to increase railway safety. The cost of the project amounts to 129.5 million euros, the work will last 36 months and will be co-financed by the European Union’s NSRF 2014-2020 program

Regarding the second project, the installation of an electrification system on the Palaiofarsalos-Kalambaka railway line, which passes through Karditsa and Trikala, and the construction of a new bypass line at the Sofades station, the contract between ErgOSE and contracting company, Avax, will be signed on Thursday.

Keep in mind that the Terna-Mytilineos joint venture has also undertaken the installation of an electrification system on the new double-track railway line that connects Kiato with Rododafni, with an initial budget of €84 million. This system and the new project signed on Tuesday concern the completion of the new double-track railway line of the Piraeus-Athens-Kiato-Patra network, which is part of the Piraeus-Thessaloniki-northern border line and is connected to the European railway network.

In the meantime, the railway regulator (RAS) has approved the operation of signaling, remote control and traffic control projects in parts of the central axis of the network (Patra-Athens-Thessaloniki-Idomeni) as well as the corresponding subsystems for GaiaOSE trains.