A new high-speed train arrived in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on January 16 and will reportedly reduce travel time to Athens to three hours and 15 minutes, down from four hours.
The train, known as “White Arrow,” comes as the first in a set of five amounting to 52 million euros and ordered from Italy by Greek railway operator Trainose, which made the announcement on Monday.
White Arrows can reach top speeds up to 125 miles per hour and come equipped with nine passenger carriages — three first-class and four economy class — with a capacity of 475 people. One of the carriages operates as a bar and restaurant.
Trainose will launch its first passenger trip with a White Arrow on March 25 in honor of the 200th anniversary of Greece’s 1821 revolution against the Ottoman Turkish empire. The company will gradually incorporate the trains into Greek railways through autumn 2021.
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3 comments
That’s great Greece has its first high-speed rail service. And just in time to launch it into service on March 25th 2021
I was trying to complete my message but this website keeps bouncing up and down it’s hard to read any article without dozens of pop ups blinding and giving me headaches trying to read my already poor sight.. as I was saying 125 miles ain’t much improvement I guess cutting back 45 minutes from a 4 hour trip current that’s because high speed trains run the fastest on straight rails. all over Greece has so many twists and turns it reduces the speed greatly cuz I have to slow down to make turns even gradul turns. I pray to God the Greek drivers would learn to drive this train safely. and not try to be this cocky males trying to make a schedule. We all have to learn safety comes first safety comes first. Even have bus drivers in New York don’t know that when they pick up passengers passengers can even retrieve the MetroCard out of the machine before the bus revs out of the bus stop causing me to fall down a few times.. so I wish I Greek train drivers and learn from the French TGV rail surface and the Japanese where the heck not been one single accident n their 50-60 years on operation.. let’s wish this new train service safe passage for all its passengers
@GEORGE J PLAGIANOS
1. The journey originally took 6+ hours, not 4. A new, dedicated high-speed track has been under construction for over a decade, running from from Patra to Thessaloniki via Athens, Lamia, and Larissa. Upon its completion last year, the Athens-Thessaloniki journey was brought down from 6 to 4 hours. These trains will further bring it down to 3:20.
2. There is zero reason to believe Greek train operators will be negligent; in fact, that’s quite racist. You can say one thing about Greek drivers, but Greek airlines, ferries, etc, have among the best safety records in the world. (And even the automobile fatality rate has been in decline, thanks to massive investment in modern roads and motorways over the past 20 years). These train operators are being trained in Italy anyway, because the owner of Trainose is Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato.