Transport engineer and urban planner. Head of CIVINET Greece–Cyprus.
The train can move large numbers of people using very little space and much less energy compared to cars or buses. In general, it’s considered one of the safest and most environmentally friendly modes of transport. Especially when we’re talking about surface rail, and not underground metro, it’s a high-quality way to travel, and boarding and disembarking take far less time than with planes or ferries.
So, whether we’re talking about light urban rail like trams, or heavier systems like metro, suburban rail, or intercity trains, rail is the backbone of sustainable mobility.
In Greece, the train has always been in the shadow of the car and the motorway. Even in the early 20th century, when there were tram systems –in Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki– they were dismantled as “outdated,” which was a mistake. We’ve seen those same systems preserved and modernised in cities like Prague, Lisbon and Istanbul.
In Greece, priority has always gone to private car use, and for intercity travel, to long-distance buses — interests that directly compete with the railway. I remember, as a student in Patras in the late 1990s, there was a lot of discussion about the Rio-Antirrio bridge that was being planned at the time. People kept asking: how is it possible to build such a major piece of infrastructure without including a railway line? That decision effectively cut off western Greece from the rail network for decades, possibly even longer.
So, the strategy and policy of all governments over the past 100 years, when it comes to the railway, are pretty clear. What we hadn’t seen until recently, though, was the core Athens-Thessaloniki connection being questioned — or even the safety of a system like the Thessaloniki metro. For me, that’s a major shift in how the country relates to rail.
From a transport planning perspective, looking at the big picture: after 2023 and Tempi, we’re entering a new era for the railway and it’s worse than anything we’ve seen before
At the same time, car use doesn’t go down just because you neglect the train. All this talk about autonomous driving or electrification reducing emissions, these are not sufficient answers from a sustainable mobility point of view. They’re complementary. They might help in certain areas, but they’re not comprehensive solutions. There has to be rail –no question about it– whether we’re talking about urban transport in medium or large cities, or about intercity travel.
To restore public trust in the railway, we need to adopt the good practices that so many other countries have already put in place. I’m not the right person to list them one by one, but I can point to recent findings: the report by the Hellenic Association of Transport Engineers (SES), the recent declaration by the Rail Transport Committee, and the SES Urban Mobility Committee’s report — all of which contain concrete policy and infrastructure proposals.
Generally speaking, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Nor should we hand a blank cheque to some company coming in from Italy, Germany or elsewhere, to do things here that wouldn’t be allowed back home. Because there is a certain logic, promoted by the New Democracy government, that the public sector in Greece isn’t up to scratch. But if the large private sector in this country is also lacking, does that mean we hand a blank cheque to a major foreign conglomerate? That’s not how it should work. The Greek state must always retain some share of responsibility, direction and control over what happens to public infrastructure and public policy. It cannot simply delegate these to someone else, no matter how much expertise they claim to have. A foreign company will look after its own interests. If it comes here to make a quick profit, take the money and leave, and you give it the space to do so, it will.
I am one of the most passionate defenders of the railway, in all its forms. I remember 20 or 25 years ago, when I was involved in local movements in Glyfada, and we were discussing the motorway plans of the minister Souflias, the expansion of Attiki Odos. Back then, I was already pushing for rail networks, trams, various solutions of that kind, with great enthusiasm. I truly believe in this.
But now, if you ask me whether I would recommend taking the train to Thessaloniki, I would tell you: No
In fact, both my company and my team, when we take on new projects or submit proposals for European programmes, generally avoid getting involved with the railway or with the Ministry of Transport, for that matter.
Let me add that I used to serve on the Ministry of Transport’s Executive Committee for Road Safety. I resigned after everything that happened. Seeing such reluctance, such deeply questionable decisions and actions from the Ministry, I no longer trust it even on road safety issues, and I’m not sure there’s any point in continuing to contribute.