Passenger trains on the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line are running again, almost 3.5 months after the devastating floods caused by the “Daniel” storm.

From today, Saturday, December 16, passenger trains return to the Athens-Thessaloniki-Athens axis, after the line has been restored and traffic has been ensured by the Infrastructure Manager OSE.

The routes will run at a reduced speed in some parts of the network, with a total journey time of 4 hours and 53 minutes.

The trains in the Larissa – Lianokladi section will run with electric propulsion, on a single line and at lower speeds, as the bad weather “Daniel” destroyed the signaling – remote control systems.

It is recalled that within a few hours 180 kilometers of state-of-the-art network were destroyed, of which 50 km of double line on the Athens-Thessaloniki axis, 80 km on the Palaiofarsalos-Kalambaka section and 50 km on the Larissa-Volos section.

The Ministry of Transport and the OSE, from the beginning of 2024, will proceed with the permanent restorations, the cost of which is estimated at approximately 200 million euros and will be covered by the Recovery and Resilience Fund. The complete restoration of the railway axis (double line, with signaling – remote control systems), if the original timetables are respected, is expected to take place at the end of 2025.

The itineraries that will be operated from today are:

From Athens to Thessaloniki:

Train IC50, departing at 07:58

Train IC52, departing at 10:58

Train IC54, departing at 14:58

Train IC56, departing at 17:58

From Thessaloniki to Athens:

Train IC51, departing at 07:04

Train IC53, departing at 10:04

Train IC55, departing at 14:04

Train IC57, departing at 17:10