Thessaloniki Metro: extension opens on August 27

The inauguration of the Thessaloniki Metro’s extension to Kalamaria is expected on Thursday, August 27, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in attendance. According to a report by “TA NEA”, the date has been confirmed by government sources, and the Municipality of Kalamaria has already begun preparations for the ceremony. The new section is about 4.8 kilometres long and includes five stations: Nomarchia, Kalamaria, Aretsou, Nea Krini and Mikra. Based on figures made public, the trip from Mikra to the city centre will take about fifteen minutes, and to the New Railway Station about twenty-five minutes. This is the first major expansion of the network since the main line began operating, and a project that changes the map of travel in the eastern part of the urban area.

Estimates for use of the new section vary depending on the planning stage at which they were made. According to estimates by the company Elliniko Metro, the extension could take around 12,000 private cars off the city’s roads, while passenger traffic forecasts range from around 60,000 to over 63,000 riders a day. These figures are study projections, not measured operating data, and the real number will only emerge after the first months of regular use. Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Nikos Tachiaos has noted that the design handed over was not complete and that additional contracts were needed, along with extra testing and certification for the new section to operate jointly with the main line, a factor that explains part of the delay.

Kalamaria is the most populous municipality in the urban area after the Municipality of Thessaloniki and, until now, was served exclusively by buses and private vehicles, with the connection to the centre made via arteries that become congested at peak hours. The five new stations cover, in sequence, the administrative zone of Nomarchia, Kalamaria’s commercial centre, the seafront neighbourhoods of Aretsou and Nea Krini, and, finally, Mikra, at the southern edge of the urban area and near the road axis to the airport. For residents, the change mainly concerns predictable travel time, since a fixed schedule is not affected by traffic congestion. For local businesses, having a station in the neighbourhood changes pedestrian flow and usually affects land use and property values around the entrances. The extension also connects Kalamaria to the New Railway Station without a bus transfer, a factor relevant both to daily commutes to work and to intercity connections. A significant number of students and workers live in the eastern part of the urban area and travel to the centre at set hours, meaning demand concentrates at two peaks, morning and afternoon.

Ahead of the inauguration, the new section is in a phase of trial runs and checks, a process that necessarily precedes every handover of a rail project to passengers and includes tests of trains, signalling, fire safety and station evacuation. The next goal, according to the plan, is extending the network toward the western neighbourhoods, a project at an earlier stage for which no operating timetable has been announced. The exact time of the ceremony has also not been announced, nor when the stations will open to passengers after the inauguration or whether there will be a period of free use. It has not yet been disclosed how the bus routes currently serving the area will be restructured. Trial runs in Kalamaria had begun in the preceding days.