Τhessaloniki Metro

Τhessaloniki Metro

Thessaloniki Metro is another project in Thessaloniki that has a long story of discussions, tenders, appeals and negotiations.

Brief History

For years, discussions were made in order to formulate a final decision on whether a Metro or a Tram system would be more suitable for the city. Finally, the Metro solution was selected.
At the end of the 80s, a project that it was intended to eventually become a Metro System was proposed by the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The project was to be financed by the revenues of the Municipal Radio Station. This effort was totally unsuccessful.
In the middle of 1993, the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Public Works (M.E.S.P.P.W.) procured the design, construction, financing and operation of a Metro System for Thessaloniki.
In June 1994, the "Macedoniko Metro" consortium was chosen to start negotiations that would lead to an agreement for construction and operation of Metro for the next 25 years. "Makedoniko Metro" consortium comprised the follwing companies "Mechaniki A.E.", "Fidel SpA"," EDI.STRA SpA", "Teknocenter SrI" και "AEG AG". On July 1994, the consortium hired "CITIBANK".
Negotiations of M.E.S.P.P.W and "Makedoniko Metro" failed on November 1996, as the Ministry declared that the Consortium did not any more fulfill basic terms of the tender documents. As a result, "Makedoniko Metro" was compelled to withdraw from the position of project undertaker and the Ministry started negotiations with the second consortium "Thesaloniki Metro", that was led by the French company "Bouygue" and the Canadian "Bombardier".
"Makedoniko Metro" appealed to the Council of State against the Ministry Decision and demanded the annulment of negotiations that the Ministry had started with "Thessaloniki Metro". This intervention of "Makedoniko Metro" led to a delay to the whole procedure by 11 months. Moreover, "Makedoniko Metro" appealed to European authorities too.

In September 1997, the Council of State rejected the appeal of Makedoniko Metro; the same happened in April 1998 by the European authorities. Despite continuing protests by "Makedoniko Metro", in April 1999, the Greek Parliament ratified the contract between M.E.S.P.P.W. and "Thessaloniki Metro" consortium and the Consortium started to prepare the documentation to be submitted to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other commercial banks for the approval of essential loans. At the same time, some preparatory works (merely geological investigations) also started. Upon completion of the preparatory works, EIB stated its doubts for the viability of the project and asked for additional clarifications.
<P> <div id=members>A three year period followed (2000-2003) in which a plethora of negotiations, contacts and discussions between the undertaking Consortium, the M.E.S.P.P.W, and the European Commission that had to do with the viability of the project (with or without extensions to Stavroupoli and Kalamaria), the financing scheme, the guarantee of the loans of the undertaking consortium by the Hellenic State, the subsidy of the ticket by the State, the legitimacy of the financial assistance of the State etc. As a result, this three year period (2000-2003) went by with absolutely no progress regarding the construction of the project.

In August 2003, then Minister of E.S.P.P.W declared that the construction of Metro as a concession project from "Thessaloniki Metro" was no more to be pursued; instead, the project would be tendered once again from scratch, but now it would be financed by the Hellenic State and European Union.
The project was tendered for one more time; in June 2004, 5 consortia expressed their interest for the project. The first stage of the tender was finished in November 2004 and 4 out of the 5 consortia initially expressing interest acquired (in January 2005) the tender documents and the new preliminary technical specifications.
Financial and technical offers were submitted in May 2005 by the following consortia:
ΑΕGΕΚ SA(GR)-IMPREGILO(IT)-ANSALDO TSF(IT)-SELI(IT)-ANSALDOBREDA(IT)
AKTOR SA(GR)-THEMELIODOMI SA(GR)-VINCI(FR)-SIEMENS(DE)
P AVAX (CY)-F.C.C. CONSTRUCCION (ES), CONSTRUCCIONES Y AUXILIAR DE FERROCARRILES (ES), DIMETRONIC (ES), ELECNOR (ES), INSTALACIONES INABENSA (ES)
In August 2005 the Consortium led by AEGEK SA was declared as a temporary undertaker of the project. After this declaration and until signing of the final contract, 34 objections and appeals were filed with the Awarding Authority, the greek courts and the European Commission. All 34 objections and appeals were finally rejected and in April 2006, the final contract with between M.E.S.P.P.W. and the undertaking consortium was signed.
As it was stated before, the undertaking consortium was the one comprising the following companies:
ΑΕGΕΚ SA(GR)-IMPREGILO(IT)-ANSALDO TSF(IT)-SELI(IT)-ANSALDOBREDA(IT).
Supervision on behalf of M.E.S.P.P.W will be carried out by ATTIKO METRO SA, the experienced company that undertook the same project for Athens Metro. Today, the transposition of public utility networks, together with archaeological excavations are in progress; the same is valid for the preliminary construction works in various stations (with corresponding road pavement occupation of central city roads )
As for the project itself, its basic technical characteristics are the following:
•13 modern stations with central platform. The main Metro line will start at the New Railway Station and end at Nea Elvetia. The railcar Depot will be located in the Votsi area
•The length of the main line of Metro will be 9,6 kms (with two separate one-way tunnels) that will be constructed (for the better part of it-7,7 kms) with two special Tunnel Boring Machines.
•18 automated, driverless trains will run on the main line; they will be modern and fully air-conditioned. The trains will not have a driver, but only a companion employee to assist passengers (Athens Metro trains have a driver)
•Comparing Thessaloniki and Athens Metro, one can see that some important differences are that two one way tunnels will be built (instead of one, two-way in Athens); moreover, security gates will be installed at the platforms (no such gates exist in Athens)
•Construction of main line is estimated to last 6,5 years