New Athens Metro Line Hopes to Alleviate Heavy City Traffic

Construction of a new Metro Line in Athens, Line 4, is currently underway in what is the biggest public undertaking in Greece at the moment.

The Line will consist of 15 new stations, connecting to covering approximately 13 kilometers of tunnels across wider Athens area and will connect to both of the other metro lines.

The project has a budget of 1.5 billion euros, and will incorporate new technologies including driverless Alstom Metropolis trains, 20 of which have are planned to be ordered.

Two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) are currently in operation, each excavating an average of 15 meters per day. The first is tunneling from the Katechaki shaft towards the Evangelismos Station, and the other from the Veikou shaft, in the same direction.

The project is expected to be completed in 2029.

Around 340,000 passengers are expected to use Line 4 on a daily basis, while car trips are also expected by 53,000 daily. Such statistics give new hope for changing the heavy traffic scene in Greece’s capital. From an environmental perspective, carbon dioxide emissions are also estimated to be reduced by 318 tons per day, and energy consumption will also save 1,216 megawatt-hours.

Source: tovima.com