Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said on Thursday that Greece’s main railway, the Athens–Thessaloniki line, is operating with a fully working remote traffic-management and signalling system for the first time.
Rail services on the route have run with those systems in use since 2 September, he told the regular press briefing. Restoration of Thessaly infrastructure damaged by Storm Daniel had been finished on schedule, he said.
“Today is a great day for Greece’s railway system,” Marinakis said. He recalled a pledge by former deputy transport minister Konstantinos Kyranakis that remote traffic management would be ready by the end of August 2026. After months of coordinated work under the current transport leadership and Deputy Minister Giorgos Kotsiras, “this extremely important project has now been completed.”
Approvals for the Oinoi–Tithorea and Larisa–Platy sections followed inspection and detailed assessment, he added. Signalling, remote control, ETCS, operational communications and public tracking on railway.gov.gr were presented as successive layers of protection meant to improve safety, reliability and traffic management.
The government goal, he said, remains a modern railway that meets passenger needs and European standards.
Independent reporting this week has treated the telecommand and signalling handover as a real step forward while noting remaining limits: ETCS equipment is widely described as installed but not yet fully certified and activated network-wide; electrification in parts of Thessaly is still unfinished; and some stretches continue to operate under operational restrictions.
Road safety and other briefing points
Marinakis also said road-accident fatalities in August 2026 were 50 percent lower than in August 2025, a month that is usually among the worst for road deaths because of holiday travel. He linked a broader 2026 improvement to a 22 percent fall in fatal accidents in 2025 — described as the European Union’s second-best result that year — and to stricter enforcement of the new Highway Code, more checks, digital cameras and infrastructure work.
On public transport, he cited 50 new electric buses in Thessaloniki, the hiring of 171 drivers, the Metro extension to Kalamaria and an enhanced Athens tram service from 7 September.
A €2.3 billion programme has been approved under the Islands Decarbonisation Fund for electricity interconnections, renewables, dams and electric-mobility infrastructure, he said. A new unified framework for housing aid and disaster compensation is meant to simplify procedures and speed payments to households and businesses.
He also pointed to real-time Attica traffic management through the “Traffic Commander” system and the K.O.M.V.O.S. team, a more than 90 percent rise in EOPYY home deliveries of high-cost medicines, and a new inpatient prescribing system.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due to meet European Council President António Costa on Thursday afternoon and to attend the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair.
