Railways of Greece

Railways of Greece

The Railways of Greece have a compex history which starts in 1869, with "Athens - Piraeus Railway".

History

Greece became independent in 1832, the birth of the newly formed sovereign state coinciding with the start of the railway era. By 1835 plans were being put to the Greek state to construct a railway line from Athens to the nearby port of Piraeus. 22 years later, in 1857, a contract for its construction was signed and the work commenced. It took four different companies a further twelve years to lay the 8.8 kilometres of track, the work being completed in 1869. [http://www.ose.gr/ose/content/Folder.aspx?d=39&rd=16685622&f=1663&rf=1372328207&m=-1&rm=-1&l=2 "Hellenic Railways (OSE) History"] , Organismós Sidirodrómon Elládos. Retrieved on April 6, 2008. (At the moment, after the major reorganisation of the OSE webpages, only Greek language text exists.) ]

The social and economic structure of Greece towards the end of the 19th century was founded on a collection of small agricultural towns acting as marketplaces for the surrounding villages. There was little industry and few roads. The government hoped that the development of a railway system would go some way towards redressing this lack of internal and external communication, and in 1881 the Prime Minister, Alexandros Koumoundouros signed four contracts for the laying of standard gauge (1.435 metre) lines. The intention was to make Greece a pivotal point on the journey between Europe and India.

In the following year, 1882, Koumoundouros was replaced by Charilaos Trikoupis as Prime Minister, who cancelled the contracts, replacing them with four of his own. He had a different political vision for the railways, seeing them as a way of stimulating the internal growth of Greece, and proposed a 417 km narrow gauge (1.0 metre) system encircling the Northern Peloponnese, with a separate system in Thessaly linking the port of Volos with the town of Kalambaka on the other side of the Thessalian plain. There was also a line of 76 km to be laid from Athens to Lavrion, on the Peninsula to the South of Athens. Trikoupis preferred narrow gauge over standard gauge due to cheaper initial construction costs. The line linking Athens to Larissa, which was planned to eventually join with the European system, was constructed to standard gauge. The network took 25 years to complete, 20 years longer than the 5 anticipated by Trikoupis.

At the beginning of the 20th century there was very limited trade between the scattered Greek villages and towns, a typical feature of pre-capitalist society, and the anticipated income to be obtained from the railways was never realised either to the benefit of the contracting companies or the Greek state. However, it did establish a base for future development.

By 1909, 1,606 km. of track had been laid, including the main standard gauge line to the then Greek - Turkish border at Papapouli, past the Tempi valley, some 400 km North of Athens. The first trains to run the full 506 kilometres from Athens to Thessaloniki on standard gauge track marked the completion of the line in 1918, which by then was running entirely on Greek territory.

Athens urban & suburban railways

Piraeus - Monastiraki - Iraklio - Lavrio - Kifissia

This first railway line in Greece, connecting Athens and Piraeus, opened in 1869. It ran for a distance of 8 km from the port of Piraeus to Thissio in Athens. It was later extended to Omonoia Square (1895) and electrified (1904) with the 600V DC third rail system. From 1911 it was also possible to run through freight trains on the Piraeus Harbor Tramway using dual system electric locomotives.

Another company, Attica Railways (1885), ran a suburban line from Lavrio Square, to the north of Omonia Square, to Iraklio (a northern suburb). It involved a section of street running, along the present 3rd September Street, from Lavrio Square to Attiki Square, beyond which it ran on a dedicated trackbed. At Iraklio, the line forked to form two suburban branches. One went further north via Maroussi to Kifissia with a freight only extension to Dionyssos marble quaries (Strofyli). The other branch ran eastwards to Vrilissia (at a point very near to the present Plakentias station) and then southwards to the villages Peania, Koropi, Marcopoulo, Kalyvia, Keratea, Kamariza and its terminus at the mining town of Lavrio.

In 1926, Greek Electric Railways S.A. (Ελληνικοί Ηλεκτρικοί Σίδηρόδρομοι, ΕΗΣ), a new company, created by the co-operation of Attica Railways S.A. and the English "Power Group", took over operation of the two lines Piraeus-Athens and Omonia and Attiki-Kifissia-Strofyli. In 1929 SPAP (Piraeus - Athens - Peloponnese Railways) took over the Iraklio - Lavrio branch line. The Athens terminal for Lavrio was moved from Lavrio Square to Athens Peloponnese Station. To join the Lavrio line to its network, SPAP built a connection between Agioi Anargyroi (Kato Liosia) and Iraklio (1931). The Lavrio line was eventually closed in 1956, due to political pressures from the road lobby. [cite book | title=Από τα Παμφορεία στο Μετρό | author=G. Nathenas, A. Kourbelis, T. Vlastos, S. Kourouzidis, V. Katsareas, P. Karamanis, A. Klonos, N. Kokkinos | language=greek | isbn=978-960-8460-91-1 | year=2007 | volume=2 | publisher=Μίλητος (Militos) | location=Athens | pages=537-834 ]

The line from Attiki Square to Kifissia operated as a steam locomotive hauled railway with numerous level crossings until 1938. The line was subsequently rebuilt in electrified dual track standard gauge without level crossings, connected to the electrified Athens-Pireus (EIS) line at Omonoia, and reopened to Kifissia in 1957. The extension to Strofyli was abandoned.

In 1976 the "Hellenic Electric Railways" (EIS, greek ΕΗΣ) running the Piraeus - Kifissia line was nationalized and was given the current name " Athens - Piraeus Electric Railways" (ISAP, greek ΗΣΑΠ). This line does not belong to OSE, and though it is usually considered as "Athens metro line one", it neither belongs to "Attica Metro" running the other two metro lines.

In 2008 the Greek Government announced plans to construct an extension of the ISAP line from Kifissia to the suburb of Agios Stefanos (Oion), which is also served by the OSE line from Athens to Oinoi.

Current status

OSE

Currently Organismós Sidirodrómon Elládos (OSE group) owns and operates the main line from Piraeus to Thessaloniki with its branches, the line from Thessaloniki to Alexandroupolis and Ormenio, the line from Platy to Florina and Kozani, the lines of Thessaly (Kalampaka and Volos branches), the metric lines of Peloponesse and the suburban lines to Kiato and Athens International Airport.

Athens Metro

Athens Metro consists of two lines in Athens and Attica.

ISAP

ISAP operates one urban line from Piraeus to Kifissia. It is regarded as "Metro Line 1", although it is a separate company.

Thessaloniki Metro

This urban rail system is currently under construction.

ee also

* Organismós Sidirodrómon Elládos
* ISAP
* Athens Metro

References


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