Kozani-Amyntaio railway line

The Kozani-Amyntaio railway line is a standard gauge convert|59|km|sing=on long railway line connecting Kozani and Amyntaio in Greece.

Construction of the line started in January 1951 and was completed in 1954. It is a branch of the Thessaloniki-Amyntaio-Florina-Bitola line, which began operations in 1882. The line serves the town of Ptolemaida, and connects to the lignite-fired power plants of Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ) at Komanos freight station. The terminal station is in the southern part of the city of Kozani.

The original plan was for a railway connection of West Macedonia, Thessaly and Central Greece, but the Greek government didn't agree with the Belgian company which had undertaken the project and the works stopped in Kozani. The line between Kozani and Kalampaka in Thessaly (through Grevena) was never constructed, although many Greek government officials used it in their election campaign. In Kozani, it has become common to refer to a project that is unlikely to be finished as being "like the train from Kalampaka".

The Kozani-Amyntaio line was under renovation between 2003 - 2007. On January 22 2007, it reopened with three trains daily [cite web | title=Rail link in western Macedonia reopened | publisher=Athens News Agency | date=2007-01-19 | url=http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2007/07-01-19.apeen.html | accessdate=2008-06-08 | language=English] , which depart from Kozani, arriving in Thessaloniki in three hours (instead of four hour before the renovation). A comparable bus trip between Kozani and Thessaloniki via Egnatia Motorway takes 1.5 hours.

Construction of the Kozani-Kalampaka line is scheduled to start at the end of 2008.

References

See also

* Hellenic Railways Organisation

Further reading

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