- €7.3 million allocated for the first significant Athens metro upgrade since 2000
- 32 km of rails on Lines 2 & 3 to be replaced
- Works target Sepolia–Dafni and Monastiraki–Ethniki Amyna stretches
- Contracts signed August 7 with STASY and “Leonardos Rigas” consortium
- Completion expected by the end of 2026
Rails, Twenty-Five Years Later
Two and a half decades after the Athens Metro opened its doors in January 2000, the system’s rails are finally getting their first large-scale facelift. The budget is €7.3 million, earmarked for replacing 32 kilometers of track along Lines 2 and 3—specifically between Sepolia and Dafni, and from Monastiraki up to Ethniki Amyna. These stretches have carried millions of trains since day one, and the wear is now impossible to ignore.
The decision isn’t sudden. Deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis put it plainly when contracts were signed on August 7: “After 25 years of uninterrupted operation, we proceed for the first time with the preventive replacement of rails on the core network of Lines 2 and 3… we act early, as every modern state should.”
Of the total €7.3M, about €4.84M (before VAT) will pay for the replacement work itself. The remaining €2.44M goes to “Artemis AE” for delivering the new rails. The deal was locked in with STASY and the “Leonardos Rigas Technical AE” consortium after a green light from the Audit Office. It is a rare moment when the paperwork and the engineering plans keep pace with each other.
From Contracts to Concrete Sleepers
The work is due to start immediately and—if everything runs to schedule—wrap up before the end of 2026. That’s an ambitious but plausible timeline for a project of this size. If successful, the overhaul should improve both ride comfort and long-term safety, extending the life of the network well into the 2040s.
For daily commuters, it means fewer rattles and squeaks underfoot. For Athens, it’s the symbolic start of a maintenance culture that could, in time, keep the city’s most vital piece of transport infrastructure from aging into obsolescence before anyone notices.