Greece to repair Athens–Thessaloniki main line by end of October 2026

Repairs to the Thessaly rail lines damaged by the storms of autumn 2023 are running late: the Athens–Thessaloniki main line is now due to be finished at the end of October 2026 (announced on 26 August 2026) and until then allows only limited operation, while the branch lines Paleopharsalos–Kalambaka and Larissa–Volos, which are to be upgraded in parallel, have seen no traffic since 2023 and no current information is available. In January 2026 Minister Kyranakis told a parliamentary committee that a journey time of 3.5 hours between Athens and Thessaloniki could be reached by 2027, which besides the repairs requires ETCS Level 1 along the whole route and the new Hellenic Train trains. The newspaper Ethnos considers a case-by-case review of level crossings, the stalled four-track undergrounding of the line in Athens-Sepolia, the complete renovation of about 50 km between SKA and Inoi and a plan for Larissa to be necessary as well. The date is a placeholder: the article gives only the end of October 2026, and the last day of the month is used. (LOK Report, 19 Jan and 26 Aug 2026)