New buses: none will go on the road without air conditioning

The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, responsible for transport, spoke about the state of the city's transport fleet, new buses that will appear, and the modernization of metro line 1 trains.

“The reality today is that all cars must have fully functional systems air conditioning in the driver's cabin and passenger compartment“, said Vasilis Ikonomou.

“A vehicle that is out of order is prohibited from moving,” he emphasized. – In the coming months we will replace 211 buses in Eastern and Western Attica. 300 new buses powered by natural gas will be put into circulation, with almost half of them going on routes, the rest by the end of the year. Another portion will be received by June 2025. In addition, 300 new passenger vehicles will be leased for a period of 10 years. This tender is ongoing and we expect the contract to be awarded by October 2024 with delivery in March or April 2025. Considering that we will purchase 750 new electric and hydrogen buses, we want so that by 2027 there won't be a single old bus on the roads of Attica“.

Regarding the extension of the suburban railway between Elefsina and Megara, he states that “the contractor has already been installed and has started the work of removing old railway materials (in order to replace the old rails with new ones). The project is on schedule with a completion horizon of 28 months, i.e. expected in the second quarter of 2026. It includes electrification, signaling and remote control. Its total cost is estimated at 132 million euros.”

Mr. Ikonomou continued: “Renewal of the park line 1 of the Athens metro – a project for which the contract was signed in December 2022 with a large specialized Spanish company (CAF). The goal is to modernize 14 trains for an initial amount of 65 million euros with financing ESPA. In June 2023 The first train was sent to the reconstruction plant in Volos. The preparation and approval of preliminary studies have been completed. For many reasons beyond our control, such as the war in Ukraine, rising material and energy costs, or delays in production lines, The contractor requested an extension of the contracttherefore, subject to the new schedule and after final approval by the audit conference, partial Delivery of trains is expected from the beginning to the end of 2025.

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