After many years of waiting, the operation of the main line of the Thessaloniki metro is now a matter of a few hundred hours, and in 14 days from today, on 11/30, the city will finally have a metro. APE-MPE boarded one of the 18 state-of-the-art trains that will cross the city of Thessaloniki underground, went up and down the illuminated escalators of some of its 13 stations and found that the feverish preparations that are being made, concern … finishes and the polishing of the infrastructure.

Carlo Bianco: You are completely safe – Enjoy the state-of-the-art metro

“Feel completely safe”, said the managing director of the Thema consortium, addressing the passengers of the Thessaloniki metro. Carlo Bianco and emphasizing emphatically that the probability of failure of the signaling system is one in 100,000 years, he notes that this statement of his does not refer to a guess he makes, but to the results of calculations made based on European Standards EN 50128 and EN 50129.

The unfortunate incidents that have occurred in the history of the railway were in the majority of them due to human errors, explains Mr. Bianco, mainly addressing all those who even today are worried and troubled by the fact that the Thessaloniki metro trains… do not have a driver .

In this context, he points out to them: “So now, we have removed the drivers and replaced them with the signaling system designed with the highest level of safety. It is this that, in the case of the Thessaloniki metro, replaces the train driver and for this reason, due to its design and operation, the possibility of an incident occurring is almost non-existent.”

“You are completely safe, enjoy the journey with the ultra-modern metro of Thessaloniki”, he notes and continuing to argue his position he emphasizes: “We currently operate six driverless lines in Milan and Copenhagen and we have never had any safety issues. The history of the driverless metro spans 40 years and to date absolutely no incidents have been recorded.”

It is recalled that the THEMA consortium, in which ATM participates and operates the metro of Milan (which closed 60 years of operation) and Copenhagen, has taken over the operation and maintenance of the Thessaloniki metro for 11 years.

“What we say … is done”, the main metro line in operation on 30/11

“What we are saying… has been done and the basic line of the Thessaloniki metro will be handed over to the citizens and visitors of the city on 30/11”, pointed out the managing director of Elliniko Metro SA, Nikos Kouretas.

Saying that in 14 days the metro will enter the life of Thessaloniki and citizens will be able to get on board and experience a different approach to their transportation to and from the city center, Mr. Kouretas reminded that its basic line is long 9.8 km, concerns 13 stations: New Railway Station, Dimokratis, Venizelou, Agia Sophia, Fountain, University, Papafi, Euclid, Fleming, Analipsi, 25th of March, Voulgari and New Switzerland and a 50,000 sq.m. train station, which includes the Operations Control Center, repair base and office space.

Especially for the control center in Pylaia, characterizing it as the “heart” of the state-of-the-art metro system, he explained that from it, experts and scientists will check every day and 24 hours a day, all the metro systems, infrastructure and wires . “It is one of the most modern control centers in the world and there is also a backup just in case,” he stressed.

17 minutes journey time N.S. Station-N.Switzerland

The underground journey with a Thessaloniki metro train, from one end of the city to the other, i.e. from New Switzerland to the New Railway Station, lasts “17 minutes including the stops”, explained Mr. Kouretas , which, as he explained, means that “the average hourly speed of each train will be 40 km/h and the maximum 80 km/h. So we understand that each passenger will need just 40 seconds to go from one station to another.”

The expected daily passenger traffic in the Thessaloniki metro will amount to 254,000 passengers, with a carrying capacity of 18,000 passengers per hour and in each direction, and according to Mr. Kouretas, with the integration of the Kalamaria extension, another 78,000 to 80,000 passengers/day will be added.

The time distance between the 18 trains that will run on the main line of the Thessaloniki metro will initially be according to him at 3.5 minutes and slowly, with the integration of the other 15 new trains that will serve the extension of Kalamaria with five stations, this will be reduced to 1.5 minutes, as he announced. In fact, he emphasized that each of the 18 trains of the main line of the Thessaloniki metro, which will move without a driver, will be able to board 465 people (sitting and standing), while in total they are 92% made of recyclable materials .

In addition to the speed with which someone will be able to cross the city of Thessaloniki underground, with the operation of the metro in the city, it is estimated that approximately 57,000 less private vehicles will circulate daily, correspondingly bringing about a reduction in CO2 pollution, by 212 tons per day.

The cost of the ticket on the Thessaloniki metro, he reminded, is 0.60 euros and each passenger can purchase it from the 104 ticket machines located in the stations, as well as from the ticket offices, from which one can secure the own personalized card. Special categories of people, such as those with mobility problems, will travel for free.

The Thessaloniki metro is “friendly” for cyclists and pet parents. As he said, with a ministerial decision published in the Official Gazette “passengers with bicycles will be able to enter it – two bicycles are allowed in the back of each carriage – and pet parents together with their animals, provided that they carry them home/ bags that are commercially available,” he stressed.

On 30/11 and the New Switzerland station-October or November 2025 Kalamaria ready

At the pace of the Olympic Games… the project is underway in New Switzerland, Mr. Kouretas pointed out, and many crews are working at a feverish pace every day, in order to have completed by 30/11 the entire opening of Michail Psellou Street as well as the modern station transfer. For the extension of the metro to Kalamaria, he announced that in October or November 2025, it will be delivered for use with the five stations completed and with the 15 new wires on the rails, which will end in Mikra.

The daily… bubble bath of the trains – the innovations, the University station and more

At the end of their… shift, a few meters before they “fall asleep” at the Train Station in Pylaia, the state-of-the-art trains of the basic line of the Thessaloniki metro will take their … bubble bath every day. “All the trains will go through the washing machine which is equipped with all the appropriate … brushes, so that they can be washed, then they will be cleaned from the inside by special crews and they will go to parking,” pointed out the deputy director of the Thessaloniki metro, Nikolaos Denis. Thus, “clean and polished, outside and inside, they will start the next day on their underground journey”, he explained.

Speaking about the four innovations of the Thessaloniki metro, Mr. Denis mentioned that they concern the fact that it does not have a driver, it has security doors on the right and left of the platform, it has two separate single tunnels and a third line that isolates the current.

Regarding the differences with the Athens metro, he said that in the first one there is a long tunnel with two lines in the middle and on the right and left are the platforms, while “in the Thessaloniki metro things are completely the other way around. We have two small single-track tunnels, which means that two trains are never going to be side by side and the platforms are always in the centre.”

Referring to safety issues, Mr. Denis emphasized that both inside the trains and at the stations, there is no blind spot, everything and everyone is monitored by the control center, while the decision-makers have taken care of the braking and steering of the trains . As he said, “in each carriage, two plugs are placed on the floor, from which sand is sprayed onto the tracks every time the trains start and stop, in order to achieve better traction”.

Among other things, he mentioned that the University station is the deepest compared to all the others, at 37-40 meters, and the only one with three exits and entrances, while addressing the citizens he noted: “At the Agia Sophia station, at both entrances, we have recorded the levels on which Thessaloniki was built, which even at its foundation, in 316 BC, was inhabited many meters deeper than today. In every era, from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman times, until the most recent with the liberation of the city in 1912, the city was inhabited closer and closer to the current level where we live today”.