Where not a single spade has been used, there is time to prevent mistakes. I am referring to the U-shaped line, part of the Athens metro planning for nine years as if nothing has changed. It was recently announced that, with a bit of good will (i.e. cash and final designs), the 12 km between Galatsi and Goudi are feasible [see link]. The goal seems down-to-earth, just one-third of the original 33 km, certainly more realistic than the outrageous "paper drills" of the 2009 Regulatory Plan [see Link].
But I still "don't want U" [see link], same as in 2010. For more or less the same reasons.
- In 2005 (and as late as the end of 2009) we were thinking that money is there. Securitization, i.e. loans to be paid back by future revenues, was in fashion. On the Athens Ring Road's (Attiki Odos') handover to the Greek State tolls would be maintained so as to pay back the loans for construction of a giant metro line [see link]. This (theoretical) ease inspired design largesse. That's over now.
- Athens' current fixed-track network is still underperforming. A few days ago the minister, the same minister that (again) promised the fourth metro line, inaugurated a suburban rail station at Tavros [see link]. (Parenthesis: Fortunately, thanks to the damned George Papandreou, the same minister is now responsible for both urban and suburban trains - there used to be separate ministries for Public Works and for Transport). Unfortunately, trains pass only every two hours through this new station, located in a neighbourhood just outside downtown Athens [see link]. Instead of being the metro of west and north Athens, as it could, the suburban rail is virtually unexploited. This cannot last forever. Someone, sometime will put on the map this worthwhile fixed-track network. And they will see that it covers the centre, the port, the airport as well as the business node of Maroussi. Not bad. If the suburban rail is taken into acccount, one can see the metro network's "shortcomings" in a different light. Different kinds of questions will then be posed, such as:
(1) Is it worth building a new metro line along Kifissias Ave. when the suburban rail can take you directly from [Maroussi's] OTE building and Skyscraper City to Athens and Piraeus?
(2) How "deprived" of a metro are the working-class neighbourhoods west of the Kifissos River, given that the metro reaches Peristeri, a new line (under construction) will link Aegaleo to Piraeus and there is also the suburban line from Piraeus to Liossia and Menidi?
From that viewpoint, only a few areas remain to be covered. Practically we are left with the densely-populated Kypseli, north of the centre, and the zone either side of Syngrou Ave. [see link]. These two could be linked by a fixed-track route passing through the centre.
I've got news for you. This route already exists and it is called the tram. Today it links the seafront and Nea Smyrni with Syntagma Sq. In conjunction with the redesign of Panepistimiou Str. (whichever form this may take) it will reach Aigyptou Sq. [near the archaeological museum]. By extending it northwards, it is possible to serve - gradually and at a fraction of the cost for an equivalent metro length - an area dependent for decades on jammed trolleybuses. If tram now causes an allergy similar to that which led to the abolition of its old Athens network after 1955, we don't have to go as far as Brussels and its pre-metro, i.e. the light-rail network that evolved into a metro [see link]. In Athens' Plakentias to Airport stretch we have the first successful track-sharing case Greece. A fixed-track network (on condition of a normal gauge, i.e. the metric network of the late 19th century, fit for the museums, is not included) may accommodate a large spectrum of trains. If a line (open to modifications) is in place, everything is feasible, at the right time.
The U line exists on paper since 2005. It replaced the metro design's original plans for branches of the main lines towards Galatsi and Maroussi [see link] - branches being problematic from an operational viewpoint. With time the U line itself acquired, of course, its own branch, once the heroic Vyronas municipality demanded to have metro service. Moreover, I sadly saw that the recent announcement featured a repetition of the bad example applied in the current SW metro terminal of Haidari a.k.a. "Agia Marina" [see link - i.e. an edge-of-town station next to the Aegaleo mountainside. This is now to be replicated across the town, with a station to be named Near East - whereas Far East would be a more appropriate name, at this remote location between the Shooting Range and Mount Imittos.
To put it plainly: A metro is expensive to build and therefore it is customary to align it amid sufficient bread - i.e. along busy, radial routes in densely built-up areas.
In order to make courageous decisions, it is important to take a comprehensive look, not a partial one. As already mentioned, a proper map will be of assistance - as pictured but with an equivalently thick line also for the suburban rail (not the thin one used on purpose in order to underplay its potential). The essence behind such a map would be the integration of urban and suburban fixed-track services in one single body, not the exception of the former Greek Railways (OSE) - the latter to be incorporated in a supposedly lucrative package, heard of for years but not visible yeet. We won't live to see a new 2004. A lot of tears were shed for the crumbling stadiums ten years after the games. As a transport engineer I hope others too will speak out about the need to get disengaged from pharaonic project-mongering and to fully utilize the, not insignificant, networks our country obtained at a time when we all believed it was entering the next level.
All links are in Greek
But I still "don't want U" [see link], same as in 2010. For more or less the same reasons.
- In 2005 (and as late as the end of 2009) we were thinking that money is there. Securitization, i.e. loans to be paid back by future revenues, was in fashion. On the Athens Ring Road's (Attiki Odos') handover to the Greek State tolls would be maintained so as to pay back the loans for construction of a giant metro line [see link]. This (theoretical) ease inspired design largesse. That's over now.
- Athens' current fixed-track network is still underperforming. A few days ago the minister, the same minister that (again) promised the fourth metro line, inaugurated a suburban rail station at Tavros [see link]. (Parenthesis: Fortunately, thanks to the damned George Papandreou, the same minister is now responsible for both urban and suburban trains - there used to be separate ministries for Public Works and for Transport). Unfortunately, trains pass only every two hours through this new station, located in a neighbourhood just outside downtown Athens [see link]. Instead of being the metro of west and north Athens, as it could, the suburban rail is virtually unexploited. This cannot last forever. Someone, sometime will put on the map this worthwhile fixed-track network. And they will see that it covers the centre, the port, the airport as well as the business node of Maroussi. Not bad. If the suburban rail is taken into acccount, one can see the metro network's "shortcomings" in a different light. Different kinds of questions will then be posed, such as:
(1) Is it worth building a new metro line along Kifissias Ave. when the suburban rail can take you directly from [Maroussi's] OTE building and Skyscraper City to Athens and Piraeus?
(2) How "deprived" of a metro are the working-class neighbourhoods west of the Kifissos River, given that the metro reaches Peristeri, a new line (under construction) will link Aegaleo to Piraeus and there is also the suburban line from Piraeus to Liossia and Menidi?
From that viewpoint, only a few areas remain to be covered. Practically we are left with the densely-populated Kypseli, north of the centre, and the zone either side of Syngrou Ave. [see link]. These two could be linked by a fixed-track route passing through the centre.
I've got news for you. This route already exists and it is called the tram. Today it links the seafront and Nea Smyrni with Syntagma Sq. In conjunction with the redesign of Panepistimiou Str. (whichever form this may take) it will reach Aigyptou Sq. [near the archaeological museum]. By extending it northwards, it is possible to serve - gradually and at a fraction of the cost for an equivalent metro length - an area dependent for decades on jammed trolleybuses. If tram now causes an allergy similar to that which led to the abolition of its old Athens network after 1955, we don't have to go as far as Brussels and its pre-metro, i.e. the light-rail network that evolved into a metro [see link]. In Athens' Plakentias to Airport stretch we have the first successful track-sharing case Greece. A fixed-track network (on condition of a normal gauge, i.e. the metric network of the late 19th century, fit for the museums, is not included) may accommodate a large spectrum of trains. If a line (open to modifications) is in place, everything is feasible, at the right time.
The U line exists on paper since 2005. It replaced the metro design's original plans for branches of the main lines towards Galatsi and Maroussi [see link] - branches being problematic from an operational viewpoint. With time the U line itself acquired, of course, its own branch, once the heroic Vyronas municipality demanded to have metro service. Moreover, I sadly saw that the recent announcement featured a repetition of the bad example applied in the current SW metro terminal of Haidari a.k.a. "Agia Marina" [see link - i.e. an edge-of-town station next to the Aegaleo mountainside. This is now to be replicated across the town, with a station to be named Near East - whereas Far East would be a more appropriate name, at this remote location between the Shooting Range and Mount Imittos.
To put it plainly: A metro is expensive to build and therefore it is customary to align it amid sufficient bread - i.e. along busy, radial routes in densely built-up areas.
In order to make courageous decisions, it is important to take a comprehensive look, not a partial one. As already mentioned, a proper map will be of assistance - as pictured but with an equivalently thick line also for the suburban rail (not the thin one used on purpose in order to underplay its potential). The essence behind such a map would be the integration of urban and suburban fixed-track services in one single body, not the exception of the former Greek Railways (OSE) - the latter to be incorporated in a supposedly lucrative package, heard of for years but not visible yeet. We won't live to see a new 2004. A lot of tears were shed for the crumbling stadiums ten years after the games. As a transport engineer I hope others too will speak out about the need to get disengaged from pharaonic project-mongering and to fully utilize the, not insignificant, networks our country obtained at a time when we all believed it was entering the next level.
All links are in Greek
