page_title: Thessaloniki Metro
section_title: 1918 and 1988 proposals
hierarchical_section_title: Thessaloniki Metro / History / 1918 and 1988 proposals
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Thessaloniki after the Great Fire of 1917, by architect Thomas Mawson. A metro line (Metropolitan Railway) is clearly shown, running on the same course as the modern Metro line.
context_page_description: The Thessaloniki Metro is an underground rapid-transit system under construction in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Estimates for the cost of the megaproject are €1.62 billion for the main line and €640 million for the Kalamaria extension, for a total of €2.26 billion. The project is primarily funded with loans from the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund and funds from the Greek government. Construction by a Greek-Italian consortium is overseen by Attiko Metro, the Greek state-owned company which oversaw construction of the Athens Metro.
  Proposed during the 1910s and first seriously planned in the 1980s, construction of the main line began in 2006 and on the Kalamaria extension in 2013. Although the initial proposal included three extensions to the main line, the latest Attiko Metro proposal seeks to combine the two westward extensions as a loop; the system will be made up of the main line and the Kalamaria and Evosmos extensions. The system under construction has 18 stations and 14.4 km of tunnels. Detailed planning of the airport extension went to tender in March 2019, while the Western loop went to tender in August of the same year.
context_section_description: Ernest Hébrard and Thomas Hayton Mawson were the first to propose the creation of a metro system in Thessaloniki in 1918 as part of a commission appointed by the government of Eleftherios Venizelos to redesign the city after the Great Fire of 1917, which had devastated the city centre. They proposed an underground rail line to allow easy access from the city centre to the planned outskirts of the city in the east. Although Thessaloniki has grown considerably since Hébrard's original design, Line 1 is almost identical to his plan and runs from his proposed New Railway Station to the suburb of Nea Elvetia. The project never materialised. A circular metro line was proposed in 1968, extending to the airport and crossing the Thermaic Gulf in a tunnel.
  The idea of a metro was revived during the 1980s. In 1988, under Mayor Sotiris Kouvelas, the city published studies for its Thessaloniki Metro development plan and construction of the project's first phase. The line was almost identical to the modern line, with 14 stations between the New Railway Station and Nea Elvetia. The plan had one additional station, Patrikiou, between 25 Martiou and Voulgari and had alternative names for three stations. Dimokratias is shown as Vardari, an alternative name for the public square served by the station; Venizelou is listed as Alkazar (Hamza Bey Mosque, on the corner of Egnatia and Venizelou Streets), and Efklidi is shown as Archaeological Museum. The network would be within the city limits, excluding Kalamaria and a large portion of Thessaloniki's metropolitan area. Of the 7.77 km (4.83 mi) of track proposed, 6.26 km (3.89 mi) would be underground and 1.51 km (0.94 mi) above ground.
  In 1989, construction began on the first 650 metres (2,130 ft) of tunnel along Egnatia street between the Thessaloniki International Fair grounds and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (the present Panepistimio station). Construction was carried out with the cut-and-cover method instead of a tunnel boring machine. The proposed metro was only 4.5 metres (15 ft) beneath ground level at 25 Martiou but dropped to about 10 metres (33 ft) towards the New Railway Station, creating archaeological problems similar to those encountered during construction of the current system. Although construction was scheduled to end in 1995, the project stalled and the unfinished (but excavated) initial cut-and-cover section became known as "the hole of Kouvelas" (Greek: η τρύπα του Κούβελα, i trypa tou Kouvela). The project ultimately failed due to a series of unsuccessful contract competitions and appeals of awarded contracts. Another obstacle was lack of interest by Greece's central government. Thessaloniki attempted to fund the project on its own, saying that European Union member states were prepared to cover 50 percent of the project costs and provide favourable loans for the remainder, but without the central-government's involvement the plan did not go forward. One reason for the lack of central-government support was Greece's political polarisation during the 1980s; Kouvelas represented the centre-right New Democracy party when the country was governed by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. Plans for a Thessaloniki metro were abandoned until the 2000s.
caption: This map by Thomas Mawson (c. 1918) shows a metropolitan railway line, in purple, running about the same route as the modern Line 1.[10]
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