The Athens Mass Transit System consists of a large bus fleet, a trolleybus fleet that mainly serves the downtown area, the city's Metro, a tram line connecting the southern suburbs to the city center,and the Athens Suburban Railway service.
Attiko Metro
Further information: Athens Metro
Exhibition of archaeological finds that came to light during the construction of the project displayed at the Syntagma Metro station.
Exhibition of archaeological finds that came to light during the construction of the project displayed at the Syntagma Metro station.
The Athens Metro is more commonly known in Greece as the Attiko Metro (Greek: ?tt??? Met??). While its main purpose is transport, it also houses Greek artifacts found during construction of the subway.The Athens Metro supports an operating staff of 387 and runs two of the three metro lines;its two lines (red and blue) were constructed largely during the 1990s, and the initial sections opened in January 2000, and the lines run entirely underground. The metro network operates a fleet of 42 trains consisting of 252 cars, with a daily occupancy of 550,000 passengers.The Blue Line runs from the western suburbs, namely the Egaleo station, through the central Monastiraki and Syntagma stations to Doukissis Plakentias avenue in the northeastern suburb of Halandri, covering a distance of 16 km (10 mi),then ascending to ground level and reaching Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, using the Suburban Railway infrastructure and extending its distance to 39 km.The Red Line, in counterpart, runs from Aghios Antonios to Aghios Dimitrios and covers a distance of 11.6 km.Extensions to both these lines are under construction, most notably westwards to Piraeus, southwards to the Old Hellinikon Airport East Terminal (the future Metropolitan Park), and eastward toward the easternmost suburb of Aghia Paraskevi. The eastern part is actually no extension per se, but rather an opening of new stations between the Ethiki Amyna and Doukissis Plakentias stations. The spring 2007 extension from Monastiraki westwards, to Egaleo, connected some of the main night life hubs of the city, namely the ones of Gazi (Kerameikos station) with Psyrri (Monastiraki station) and the city centre (Syntagma station).
Electric railway (ISAP)
An ISAP train (Green Line) passes by the Stoa of Attalus in central Athens .
An ISAP train (Green Line) passes by the Stoa of Attalus in central Athens .
The third line, not run by the Athens Metro, is the ISAP (Greek: ?S??), the Electric Railway Company. This is the Green line of the Athens Metro as shown on the adjacent map, and unlike the red and blue routes running entirely underground, ISAP runs either above-ground or below-ground at different sections of its journey. This same operation runs the original metro line from Piraeus to Kifisia; it serves 22 stations, with a network length of 25.6 km (15.9 mi),an operating staff of 730 and a fleet of 44 trains and 243 cars,and a daily occupancy rate of 600,000 passengers.The historic Green Line, a 25 km-long and 24-station line which forms the oldest and for the most part runs at ground level, connects the port of Piraeus to the northern suburb of Kifissia, and is set to be extended to Agios Stefanos, a suburb located 23 kilometres (14 mi) to the north of the city centre, reaching to 36 km.
Suburban rail (Proastiakos)
The Proastiakós connects Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport to the city of Corinth , 80 km (50 mi) west of Athens , via the central Larissa train station, and is sometimes considered the fourth line of the Athens Metro. The metro network, Suburban Rail not included, currently extends to a length of 91 km (57 mi), expected to stretch to 124 km (72 stations) by 2009. The Proastiakos will be extended to Aigio (180 km west of Athens ), and Chalkida by the end of 2007.
The urban and suburban railway system is managed by three different companies; namely ISAP,Attiko Metro (lines 2 & 3) and Proastiakós (line 4).
