Expectations for 2020 Thessaloniki metro launch dashed

Ellaktor, the construction group that is building the Thessaloniki metro, has openly contradicted operator Attiko Metro’s assertion that the often-delayed project is nearing its final stages and that the main line will open in 2020.

Ellaktor said that not only will the opening not take place in 2020, but also that it is impossible to predict when this will happen, due, it said, to the lack of a realistic timetable.

“Your declarations to the press that the project will be completed and operations start in 2020, despite the fact that you know and have long been briefed by the concessionaire that this is technically impossible, are groundless,” Ellaktor said in a letter to Attiko Metro dated August 9.

The imminent opening of the metro has been touted since the late 1990s.

Earlier in the year, the then SYRIZA government had celebrated the arrival of the first carriage by having the prime minister, a couple of ministers and several other officials pose inside the carriage as passengers.

The carriage was on a siding and the rails had not been been put in place yet.

Source: ekathimerini.com