Train travel picks up in Greece
They may be slow, rickety, and sometimes daubed with graffiti, but Greece’s trains are experiencing a renaissance.
As the country struggles under the weight of the economic crisis, more and more Greeks have been opting for rail travel as a cheaper alternative to using their cars
A couple kiss goodbye as one of them gets on a train bound for Athens from Thessaloniki. Rail traffic between the two cities – the two largest in Greece – has rocketed by 33 percent in the first 11 months of 2012.
Fuel prices have risen to 1.7 euros a litre in Greece in December, making them among the most expensive in Europe, and causing people to cram into trains rather than using their cars.
A man stares into the distance as he waits before boarding a train to Athens at Lianoklad, a little town some 200 km from the capital. The rail network in Greece remains patchy and is beset by strikes, but using it is cheaper than paying for petrol.
Vassilis Davoras, a teacher in the northern city of Veria, looks out of a train window as he travels from Thessaloniki to Athens. Davoras makes the trip to Athens a dozen times a year and used to spend about 200 euros on filling up his car tank and paying tolls each time. A train ride in comparison costs around 60 euros.
The rail network that covers the Athens-Thessaloniki route - which this train is travelling - is run by Trainose, a heavily indebted state monopoly owned by Railway Organization of Greece (OSE). Last December the company swung to a profit for the first time.
In the first two months of 2012 Trainose made a profit of nearly 142,000 euros, compared to a loss of 12.6 million euros a year earlier. It is due for privatisation next year.
Trainose operates 500 routes on 2,500 km of railways slowed down by narrow tunnels and hundreds of kilometres of one-way tracks.
A train driver operates a train travelling from Athens to Thessaloniki, a route where traffic surged this year after falling over the 2009-10 and 2010-11 periods.
A train inspector signals to a driver at Thessaloniki railway station.
A young man holding a skateboard waits to board a train in Thessaloniki.
Passengers wait for a train early in the morning at Athens railway station. The train that covers the route between Thessaloniki and Athens at night has been nicknamed "Karvouniaris" or "coal-fired" because it is so loud and sluggish.
A man cups the back of his neck with his hand as he sits in front of ticket desks at Thessaloniki station.
