Capital’s transit modernizes but driver shortage persists

Greece’s superior is experiencing uneven advancement successful its nationalist transportation overhaul, with caller buses arriving adjacent arsenic aging infrastructure creates persistent delays.

While 55% of Athens buses are present caller models – rising to 80% by year’s extremity – the system faces a captious shortage of astir 450 drivers needed for afloat operations. The operator shortage forces way cancellations and delays passim the network.

The electrical railway presents adjacent starker challenges. Most trains day from the 1980s, requiring regular attraction and creating frequence gaps of 8 to 10 minutes during unreserved hour, compared to three minutes connected newer metro lines.

“On 1 route, I tin brushwood illegally parked cars two oregon three times, losing 5 to 10 minutes,” said Stavros, a 25-year veteran driver.

The archetypal caller electrical train successful 21 years will get successful December, with 13 much pursuing monthly. Officials task five-minute frequencies and 24-hour Saturday work by autumn 2027. Weekend metro operations launched precocious but excluded the aging electrical railway system entirely.