Traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki by train enters a new, “speedy” dimension with ERGOSE,a subsidiary of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE), setting for a highly ambitious project that will reduce time of this particular route down to 3,5 hours. ERGOSE announced to have signed a contract with Tomi-Alstom Transport SA Consortium, which further provides for “the restoration and upgrading of the telecommanding and signaling system, and the replacement of 70 switches in the train line linking Athens-Thessaloniki-Promahonas”. The contract also includes signaling work, telecommanding and rail infrastructure, as well as superstructure work, under an estimated budget of 52,753,400 euros. Notably, the project involves the Restoration and remediation of signalling-telecommanding systems so that they can return to good operating conditions, as well as their upgrade, installation of a fiber optic cable, protection of copper wiring from theft or sabotage, upgrade of stations between Oinoi-Davlia and between the village of Domokos and the city of Larissa, and restoration of the train route from Thessaloniki to Kilkis, in the part between Nea Philadelphia and Gallikos.
Christos Kalloniatis (Professor of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication at the University of the Aegean), Iris Kritikou (Archaeologist-Historian of Art), Konstantinos Maniatopoulos (Director of the Stratis Eleftheriadis-Tériade Museum – Library, Visual Artist-Historian of Art), Irine Vasilopoulou