The procedures are entering the final stretch and all outstanding issues for the commercial operation of the Metro in Thessaloniki are being resolved. As everything shows, the… “die has been cast” both for when the first ticket will be… cut, and for its cost.

According to the political leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, which is currently taking journalists on a tour of the Metro Station and Operation Control Center facilities, the main line of the Thessaloniki Metro will be put into commercial operation in the second half of 2024 as the prime minister himself had implied during the press conference he gave in the context of the 87th TIF.

Six months later, the extension to Kalamaria is expected to be put into commercial operation.

As for the ticketwhich will be uniform for all urban means of transport in Thessaloniki, will be cheaper than the Athens Metro fare, i.e. it will be close to the price of the OASTH ticket and certainly below 1.20 euros.

As also mentioned today, the competition for the single ticket will start immediately.

As the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Nikos Tachiaos, and the managing director of Elliniko Metro, Nikos Kouretas, stated, the ceiling slab at Venizelos Station will be built by mid-December.

Immediately after that, test runs of the trains will be able to start, along the entire length of the baseline, as the platforms and safety gates (PSD) have already been installed.

The construction work for the baseline is essentially complete. All the civil engineering works have been done and only some finishing touches remain in the architecture and the integration of the electromechanical systems.

Egnatia is “liberated”.

These days, the Hellenic Metro is withdrawing the last squatters from the construction site and, by the end of the year, Egnatia Street will also be freed, in its entire width, at the height of the Venizelos station.

The works at street level will end at the end of 2023, both on the main line and on the Kalamaria Extension.

The only project that remains to be carried out and Hellenic Metro SA undertakes to implement it, is the construction of the Transfer Station in New Switzerland. The assignment of the project will take place next week, with a law that will be passed by the Parliament.

It should be noted that the construction cost of the basic line of the Metro, together with the additional contracts required for the archaeological ones, reaches 1.5 billion euros.

It should be noted that from the signing of the Operation and Maintenance Agreement with the contractor, THEEMA Company, the main line should be put into commercial operation within 14 months.