The plan to change the railway map in Northern Greece is “on track”

The plan to change the transport map in Northern Greece is on tracks with a series of important and ambitious projects implemented by railway infrastructure authority ERGOSE, giving life to Greek railways.

Projects that strengthen the cross-border railway connection with the rest of South-Eastern Europe and at the same time open an alternative freight corridor from that of the Bosphorus, turning Greece into a logistics hub in the wider region of South-Eastern Europe. A development of major importance for the competitiveness of the Greek economy.

With these projects, the ports of Northern Greece are interconnected creating a continuous flow of goods, while they are also connected to Black Sea ports facilitating cross-border trade and transport.

In particular, Northern Greece is at the center of the planning of a series of projects, which will connect the so-called critical infrastructures – ports, airports, freight stations and industrial areas – with the railway network. The ports of Northern Greece can be an important pillar of development and trade of the Balkan peninsula and the wider region of South-Eastern Europe. A basic condition to achieve this is to improve their interconnectivity and this is something achieved with the projects implemented by ERGOSE.

These are the projects:

Eastern Egnatia Railway

Two of these projects, with a total budget of 2.75 billion euros, which were auctioned using the Competitive Dialogue method, create a strong development footprint in Northern Greece, putting one of the largest public projects of all time, the Eastern Railway, on the tracks of implementation. Egnatia, which will connect southern Thessaloniki with the port of Kavala and Xanthi and further north Alexandroupoli with Ormenio.

These are the construction projects of the new Thessaloniki – Nea Karvali – Toxotes railway line and the upgrade of the Alexandroupolis – Ormenio line, which will change the landscape of passenger and freight transport and geopolitically upgrade the entire region of Northern Greece.

These two projects will be particularly important for the development of freight transport that will connect the Black Sea with the Aegean and the ports of Alexandroupoli, Kavala and Thessaloniki.

 Greece – Bulgaria “Sea2Sea” Transnational Project

These projects are part of the Greece-Bulgaria “Sea2Sea” cross-border project, which basically foresees the development of a European railway corridor, connecting the ports of Thessaloniki, Kavala and Alexandroupolis, with their counterparts on the Black Sea (Bourgas and Varna) and Danube (Ruse).

The railway bypass of the Bosphorus will upgrade the development role of Northern Greece by creating a new important freight corridor in Europe.

The developmental footprint of the upgrade of the Thessaloniki-Alexandroupoli-Ormenio railway axis is not limited to the large cities or the ports of the region, but extends to the regional development of the wider region of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

Upgrading of the Alexandroupolis – Ormenio Railway Line

The upgrade project by doubling the existing cross-border line, in the section from Alexandroupoli to Ormenio, with a budget of 1.08 billion euros, is a project of strategic importance, which improves the cross-border connections with Bulgaria in Ormenio and with Turkey in Pythia.

It enhances both freight and passenger traffic, as the line will also be able to operate for suburban railway service of the areas along the Evros River.

The Contractor that will be selected will undertake the study and construction of the upgrade of the existing single railway line Alexandroupoli – Ormenio – Greek-Bulgarian border of 176 kilometers long into a double one, with the installation of signaling systems and ETCS Level1 and electrification, as well as the upgrade of railway stations.

Construction of a New Thessaloniki – Nea Karvali – Toxotes Railway Line

With the construction of the project, with a budget of 1.68 billion euros, 206 km of new railway line, with signaling and electrification, will be put into operation, with which the railway corridor connecting Thessaloniki to Kavala will be completed.

At the same time, it will connect the under-development port of Nea Karvali, crossing the eastern part of the Prefecture of Kavala and will end up in the wider Toxotes area of Xanthi, where it will be connected to the rest of the railway network. The new line is estimated to reduce the time of the route Thessaloniki – Alexandroupolis by at least 3 hours.