A total of twenty-three trains, fifteen of which will be suburban trains and the rest for intercity express trains, were “locked” in yesterday’s agreement in Rome between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to upgrade the railway infrastructure, which has been a constant demand of the Greek government, especially since Tempi.

At the same time, the upgrade of the depots and the amendment of the contract between the Greek state and the Italian railways, which was signed during Kostas Karamanlis‘ tenure at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and was severely criticized since it lowered the bar of investment for the Italian company without committing it for new rolling stock, resulting in the devaluation of the Greek railway, while the parent company has one of the most modern and fastest trains in Europe.

The much advertised “modern” rolling stock brought by the Italians to Greece was second-hand and built in 1995, so that today it faces many problems with very frequent breakdowns (1.7 breakdowns a day as Deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis said yesterday) while the situation on the suburban railway is desperate as it is in danger of being left without trains.

The government claims that the new contract will include “clauses and timetables” to make it binding, something that the current contract provided for but has not been respected. While there are also significant outstanding debts between OSE and Hellenic Train that have been a point of friction over time.

The deal, as announced yesterday, will be worth a total of 360 million and will be implemented after the Greek side invests over 450 million for the rehabilitation of the railway projects (after the Daniel and Elias disasters) in Thessaly and Central Greece, resources which include infrastructure and the development of safety systems with projects that have been initiated and will start being implemented immediately.

Among them will be the installation of ETCS that allows automatic braking of trains and which, according to the ministry, will be completed in the next two months as it is currently not fully operational as well as the undergrounding of the line in Sepolia a project that was to be delivered last year but was recently extended until 2028!

Also included are renovation projects at the stations in Athens and Thessaloniki as well as the suburban railway.