Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway

Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway
Overview
Status Fully operational
Locale Greece (Central Macedonia,
East Macedonia and Thrace)
Termini Thessaloniki 40°38′40″N 22°55′46″E / 40.6444°N 22.9294°E / 40.6444; 22.9294Coordinates: 40°38′40″N 22°55′46″E / 40.6444°N 22.9294°E / 40.6444; 22.9294
Alexandroupoli 40°50′49″N 25°53′04″E / 40.8469°N 25.8844°E / 40.8469; 25.8844
Operation
Opened 1896 (1896)
Owner OSE
Operator(s) TrainOSE
Technical
Line length 440.8 km (273.9 mi)
No. of tracks single track [1]
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in) standard gauge
Electrification no [1]
Route map
Line to Athens and Florina
0.0 Thessaloniki
to Skopje
20.9 Filadelfeia
28.7 Gallikos
41.2 Kilkis
58.9
24.4
Chersos
47.0 Mouries
61.6 Rodopoli
68.6 Livadia
from Sofia
94.3 Strymonas
98.9 Sidirokastro
126.0 Serres
170.2 Lefkothea
196.1 Drama
233.6 Paranesti
256.4 Stavroupoli
277.4 Toxotes
291.4 Xanthi
319.4 Iasmos
338.6 Komotini
385.9 Kirki
Alexandroupoli Port
Alexandroupoli
406.3
0.0
Alexandroupoli Dialogi
Line to Dikaia

The Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway is an about 441 km long railway in northern Greece connecting the Central Macedonian city of Thessaloniki with Alexandroupoli in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, via Serres. At the Strymonas station there is a connection towards Sofia. As of 2015, there is regular passenger service to Alexandroupoli with connecting services to Dikaia, as well as international services to Sofia and via Skopje to Belgrade, while the international service to Istanbul ("Friendship Express") remains suspended.

Course

The western terminus of the Thessaloniki–Svilengrad railway is the New Railway Station, Thessaloniki. It runs north passing Kilkis, until it turns east at the shore of Dojran Lake. It runs along the north shore of Lake Kerkini, and crosses the river Strymonas near Sidirokastro. The line north to Sofia (border crossing Promachonas/Kulata) branches off here. The railway continues east along Serres and Drama. It crosses the river Nestos at Paranesti, and follows it until Toxotes. It passes Xanthi and Komotini, and reaches the Aegean Sea at Alexandroupoli, where it ends at the Alexandroupoli railway station, which is further connected to Dikaia via the Alexandroupoli–Svilengrad railway.

History

The line was opened in 1896, to extend the preexisting railway line from Istanbul towards Central Macedonia.

Services

The Thessaloniki–Svilengrad railway is used by the following passenger services:

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, August 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.