The official opening of the first completed station of the Thessaloniki metro system, the ‘Sintrivani-Ekthesi’ station, began in the northern Greek city on Saturday afternoon with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras attending, ANA reports.
In statements to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), the head of Attiko Metro SA Yiannis Mylopoulos commented: “This is the first time that the completion of the Thessaloniki metro appears on the horizon.”
He noted that the entire system will be ready for use and already commercially operating by Christmas in 2020, while 2019 will be a crucial year for its completion since the trains will be delivered and the first test runs will take place in the summer.
He pointed out that the Thessaloniki metro uses the most cutting-edge technology, including driverless trains, and will be the most modern in Europe: “As we all know, our metro will be an automatic metro operating without a driver, which will need a period of testing of approximately a year so that the system can be calibrated and there is not half a chance in 1,000 of even the slightest incident.”
Work on the Thessaloniki metro started in 2006 and it is considered the largest project currently under construction in northern Greece, with 75 pct EU funding.
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