University student Despoina Billia places candles on the ground next to a toy train set at a makeshift memorial for a deadly 2023 rail disaster, outside Parliament in Athens, Greece, on March 13, 2025. [Lefteris Pitarakis/AP]
Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city in the northern part of the country, is 352 kilometers from the Bulgarian capital by train. Of this distance, 142 km is in Greece, where there is no electrification (there is on Bulgaria’s side), the track layout is old, the tracks need maintenance and the route has many level crossings. For these reasons, restrictions have been imposed on speed limits and only commercial trains cover the distance in 6-7 hours.
For the approximately equivalent distance between Brussels and Frankfurt (320 km), only a three-hour journey is required.
Things are worse for the long-gone international Thessaloniki-Istanbul railway connection, which was 830 kilometers: In 2007, the Filia-Dostluk (“friendship” in Greek and Turkish respectively) Express took about 12 hours to cover the distance. Now the trains do not even reach the city of Alexandroupoli, the capital of Greece’s border region of Evros. They stop in Serres, Central Macedonia.
The only section of our international railway network where serious investments have been made is the one linking Thessaloniki with Eidomeni, a village near the border with North Macedonia. But then the Balkan chaos begins. It goes without saying that today there are no passenger trains on this line. And yet, even under these conditions, if the legendary Acropolis Express that operated between Munich and Athens until 1991 were to re-enter the line, the journey that in the 1980s took 33 hours, today would have been reduced to 24.
The problem with railway connections in our region extends far beyond the borders of Greece, as its reconstruction requires a vision that also extends into neighboring countries. Its center should be Thessaloniki, which must become the heart of the Balkan railway networks with fast, and of course safe, connections with Sofia, Skopje, Belgrade and Istanbul. The crowning glory of the vision would be the direct rail connection of Alexandroupoli with Ukraine’s Odessa with intermediate stations in the ports of Burgas and Varna in Bulgaria and Constanta in Romania. This is a route of approximately 750-800 kilometers. That is the distance between Athens and Alexandroupoli by car. The goal is to establish Alexandroupoli as the main export port for products for the countries on the western side of the Black Sea. Through such a route, a commercial freight train will travel from Odessa to Alexandroupoli in 10-15 hours. For the alternative route, a ship needs at least two days.
Is all this feasible? The answer is provided by Rail Baltica, a rail infrastructure project that is intended to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network, linking Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and Warsaw, which is currently being implemented at a cost of 2.7 billion euros and European funding. It is extremely positive for all these prospects for the railway in Greece and the Balkans that the portfolio of the European commissioner for transport is held by a Greek.
Beyond that, we must keep in mind that the EU finances the creation of new train lines, not their maintenance. National investments must be made for their maintenance. Expensive technology offers solutions, and there are international standards for the number of employees per kilometer of railway. We cannot achieve anything differently.
Finally, we should remember that the railway is like the army; it requires discipline. Furthermore, strict employment assessments must be made that go beyond union balances.
The train that “stopped” forever at Tempe in 2023 was full of young people. Most of them were the age of my students; they were the age of my children. It is not enough to find and punish the perpetrators of this tragedy. In memory of these youngsters who were lost, we must have a vision for the railway to become the most obvious and safest means of transport in Greece, and for our country to be transformed into a railway hub of the Balkans. This will not happen overnight. This vision must become a national policy that will be followed by all governments that will come in the coming years.
In 2043, I would like us all, survivors, relatives, friends and representatives of the state, to stand on the spot where the young people were lost at Tempe and whisper to them that their loss was a reason to wake up, while modern, fast and safe trains will come.
Angelos Syrigos is an associate professor of international law and foreign policy at the Pantheon University of Athens, and a member of the ruling New Democracy Party.