Athens Subway Grows, Adding Two Routes

Athens last week expanded its subway system, going from one line to three and opening 13 stations including one near the Megaron Concert Hall. Officials hope the expansion will help unsnarl street traffic and reduce the Greek capital’s notoriously high air pollution by cutting thousands of daily car trips.

The $2.2-billion project adds an east-west Blue Line between the Syntagma station and Ethniki Amyna to the northeast, and a north-south Red Line between Syntagma and Sepolia to the northwest. The earlier route, the 15-mile-long Green Line, connects the Piraeus cruise port to outlying areas via Monastiraki in the tourist-heavy Plaka district and Omonia Square.

A new two-level station at Syntagma (Constitution) Square connects the new lines. Trains run every three minutes in rush hours and every five to 10 minutes in non-rush hours. Fares are about 80 cents.

Later this year, Athens hopes to add more stations, including one near the Acropolis, the ancient Agora and Temple of Hephaestus, and expand further before hosting the summer Olympic Games in 2004. Officials hope eventually to extend the Blue Line to Athens’ airport, but an opening date has not been set.

The subway construction has also amounted to a major archeological dig, with finds that date to the Neolithic era and include a Roman bath, a sarcophagus, aqueducts and cisterns.

Photos and replicas of some of the recovered artifacts decorate stations.