Karamanlis: Τhe Kiato – Rododafni railway line has been completed after 14 years

The members of the Standing Committee on Production and Trade of the Parliament, were informed by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Ah. Karamanlis on the signing of the 3rd Supplementary Contract for the project “Construction of Remaining Infrastructure, Surveillance, Signaling – Telecommunications, Telecommunications and Electromechanical Installations of Tunnels for the new Kiato-Rododafni Railway Line”.

Mr. Karamanlis noted that this project is finally completed after 14 years.

“A project, which started in 2006 and with many problems, has finally reached its completion. “We received it with several problems and we knew that any further delay in its completion would mean the return of European funds from our country amounting to 240 million euros”, he noted.

At the same time, he underlined that the great projects do not belong to any government or party, but belong to the Greek people, because through their own sacrifices and for their own future they become a reality.

“Every government has an obligation to put its own stone to serve this purpose,” he added, noting that the capitulation of large projects for micropolitical exploitation is an insult.

Mr. Karamanlis explained that this is a double high speed and safe railway line, with a total length of about 71 kilometers. The project serves three new, modern railway stations: the station of Xylokastro, Akrata, and Aigio and at the same time six stops: Diminio, Lykoporia, Lygia, Platanos, Diakopto, and Eliki.

It also has six tunnels with a total length of about 11 km, 8 escape tunnels with a total length of more than 2 km, 13 cut & cover passes, 18 railway bridges and 60 uneven crossings. It has the most modern signaling and telecommunication systems, which, among other things, ensure the operation of the line with absolute safety for all and provide the possibility for the trains to reach a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

Need for additional flood protection

Regarding the flood protection of the project, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport stressed that during the construction of the hydraulic works of the High Speed ​​Railway, inconsistencies and incompatibilities with the respective hydraulic works of the highway were found.

“This has resulted in a lot of problems and a lot of damage from the uncontrolled flow of rainwater, especially during the winter months. Thus, despite the fact that all the flood protection works provided for in the original contract have been completed, they were deemed insufficient, and need to be adjusted “, he underlined.

Also, regarding the additional works required for the recording of wear and tear of rails, Mr. Karamanlis stressed that during the test crossings of trains that took place, surface damage was observed on the rails.

“These were mainly the result of their long-term storage, as well as climate change and especially the intense humidity. Consider that these materials were in storage since 2017.

In order to repair these damages, however, it is deemed necessary on the one hand to record in detail the changes that need to be made and on the other hand, the sanding of the problem areas with special railway equipment “, he noted.

The estimated time of all these works is 12 months from the signing of the supplementary contract.

Railway projects worth 3.3 billion

“The development of a modern railway network – over and underground – is our main goal and we are determined to do everything to achieve it, in order for our country to move to the environmentally friendly railway projects over the next 15 years, which will receive a large amount of funding from the EU “, stressed Mr. Karamanlis announcing that in the near future the entire railway project program will be announced in detail – the largest that has ever been undertaken in Greece – amounting to 3.3 billion euros, which, when implemented, will change the transportation map of the country.

The CEO of ERGOSE, Christos Vinis, also answered questions from the deputies. Mr. Karamanlis was accompanied by the Secretary General of Infrastructure, George Karagiannis.

Response to SYRIZA for the 50 buses of the Municipality of Thessaloniki

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport also responded to SYRIZA about the buses offered to OASTH by the Municipality of Thessaloniki.

He recalled the failure, as he said, of the nationalization of OASTH by the previous government of SYRIZA, which left the city of Thessaloniki with only 230 buses, while today there are more than 400. He stated that adjustments had to be made to the 50 buses supplied to the Municipality of Thessaloniki from Leipzig, but stressed that these vehicles are much better in relation to the existing old fleet.