Grassroots drive for Kypseli metro station bears fruit
A community initiative launched in the Athens district of Kypseli several years ago to improve public transportation in one of the capital’s most densely populated neighborhoods is bearing fruit after the company responsible for the Athens metro agreed to add a new station.
Attiko Metro SA has included a stop in Ano Kypseli, the northern part of the hilly district, in the tender for Line 4 of the Athens subway system.
The campaign to bring the metro to the upper part of Kypseli, where it will also serve another very populous neighborhood, Galatsi, began in 2010 on the initiative of the municipality and residents in both districts, explains Stratis Stavroulakis, a member of the Kypseli-Galatsi Residents’ Committee.
“Attiko Metro excluded the possibility in 2014 because the station would have to be built at a very great depth,” he says, explaining that initial efforts failed to bring the company around.
The power of social media, however, kicked in after the committee started a blog and a Facebook page to drum up support for its cause in 2015. “We took the issue to the councils of Athens and Galatsi municipalities, which decided in favor of our proposal, while talks with Attiko Metro were also restarted and it agreed to re-examine the issue,” says Stavroulakis.
