File:Athens Transport Montage.png, 250px, alt=Athenian public transport montage. Clicking on an image in the picture causes the browser to load the appropriate article., Top to bottom: metro
Metro may refer to:
Geography
* Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...
train (sub-surface and deep level); bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
; trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
; tram
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
; suburban train
Commuter rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Commuter rail systems can use locomotive-hauled tr ...
; and the funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
rect 0 0 1000 330 Athens Metro
The Athens Metro () is a rapid transit system serving the Athens urban area in Greece. Line 1 opened as a single-track conventional steam railway in 1869 and was electrified in 1904. Beginning in 1991, Elliniko Metro S.A. constructed and ext ...
rect 0 340 495 670 List of bus routes in Athens
This is a list of all the bus routes in Athens, Greece.
Symbolism
2000-Today Trunk Routes
The trunk routes were created in 1995 as part of an attempt to create a bus rapid transit system in Athens. They actually were renamings of existing route ...
rect 505 340 1000 670 Trolleybuses in Athens
rect 0 680 1000 1010 Athens Tram
The Athens Tram is the modern public tram network system serving Athens, Greece. The system is owned and operated by STASY, which replaced Tram S.A. in June 2011.
STASY operates a fleet of 25 Alstom Citadis and 35 Hitachi Sirio, Sirio vehicle ...
rect 0 1020 495 1350 Athens Suburban Railway
The Athens Suburban Railway (), officially the Athens Suburban and Regional Railway, is a commuter rail service that connects the city of Athens and its metropolitan area with other places in Attica, Boeotia, Corinthia and the city of Chalcis in ...
rect 505 1020 1000 1350 Lycabettus Funicular
Public transport in Athens comprises a
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
network, various
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...
systems,
funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
s, and
maritime services to serve the more than 4 million inhabitants of the city spread over an area of .
Rail transport
Metro
The Athens Metro is operated by
Stasy S.A (Statheres Sygkoinonies S.A) which is a subsidiary company of
OASA
Transport for Athens (), officially the Athens Urban Transport Organisation (, , ), is the operator of public transport in Athens, public transport in Athens, Greece. Transport for Athens, through its subsidiary companies, operates Athens Metr ...
(Athens urban transport organisation) and provides
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
throughout the Athens Urban Area. While its main purpose is transport, it also houses Greek artifacts found during construction of the system.
["Athens Metro". Hellenic Ministry of Culture. www.culture.gr. Archived from the original on 7 December 2006. Retrieved 26 January 2007.] The Athens Metro has an operating staff of 387 and runs three metro lines; namely the Line 1 (Green), Line 2 (Red) and line 3 (Blue) lines, of which the first was constructed in 1869, and the other two largely during the 1990s, with the initial sections opened in January 2000. The line 1 for the most part runs at ground level and the other two (lines 2,3) routes run entirely underground (except the Doukisis Plakentias-Airport section) and a fleet of 42 trains consisting of 252 cars operate within the network,
["Athens Urban Transport Network in Facts and Figures (pdf) page 15" (PDF). OASA. www.oasa.gr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2006. Retrieved 4 February 2007.] with a daily occupancy of 1,353,000 passengers.
Line 1
Line 1 (the Green Line) serves 24 stations, and forms the oldest line of the Athens metro network. Runs from Piraeus station to Kifissia station and covers a distance of 25.6-kilometre (15.9 mi). There are also transfer connections with the Blue (line 3) at
Monastiraki
Monastiraki (Modern Greek language, Greek: Μοναστηράκι, ''Monastiráki'', , literally ''little monastery'') is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the main shopping districts in Athens. The are ...
and
Piraeus station
Piraeus (, ) is the name of two railway stations in Piraeus, Athens, Greece, approximately 9 km south-west of the centre of Athens. The southern building is an interchange station between Line 1 and Line 3 and is the present terminus of At ...
and with Red (line 2) at
Omonia and
Attiki stations.
Line 2
Line 2 (the Red Line) runs from
Anthoupoli station to
Elliniko
Elliniko (, meaning 'Hellenic' or 'Greek') is a coastal municipality in the Attica region and a southern suburban town in the Athens agglomeration in Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality of Ellin ...
station with a total number of stations being 20 and covers a distance of 17.5 km (10.9 mi).
16The line connects the western suburbs of Athens with the southeast suburbs, passing through the center of Athens. The Red line has transfer connections with the Green (line 1) at
Attiki and
Omonia Square stations. There are also transfer connections with the Blue (line 3) at the
Syntagma Square station and with the Tram at Syntagma Square,
Syngrou-Fix station and
Neos Kosmos station.
There is a planned expansion of this line from
Anthoupoli to
Ilion, and the estimated completion date is 2028.
Line 3
Line 3 (the Blue Line) runs from the western suburbs, namely the
Dimotiko Theatro metro station
Dimotiko Theatro (, ) is a station in Piraeus, Greece. It is the southwestern terminus of Athens Metro Line 3. It opened in October 10, 2022, as part of the Line 3 extension to Piraeus.
History
The station was first planned along with the rest o ...
, through the central
Monastiraki
Monastiraki (Modern Greek language, Greek: Μοναστηράκι, ''Monastiráki'', , literally ''little monastery'') is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the main shopping districts in Athens. The are ...
and Syntagma stations to
Doukissis Plakentias
Doukissis Plakentias (), sometimes known simply as Plakentias, is an Athens Metro and Suburban Railway station situated at the end of Doukissis Plakentias Avenue in Chalandri, a municipality in the regional unit of North Athens, Attica, Greece. ...
avenue in the northeastern suburb of
Halandri
Chalandri (, Ancient Greek: Φλύα, ''Phlya'', also ''Halandri'', ''Khalandri'') is a town and a suburb in the northern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. It is a municipality of the Attica region.
Geography
Chalandri is a suburb in No ...
, covering a distance of 23 stations and ,
then ascending to ground level and reaching
Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport
Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' , commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Su ...
with a total of 27 stations, using the Suburban Railway infrastructure and extending its length to .
The spring 2007 extension from Monastiraki westwards, to
Egaleo
Aigaleo or Egaleo ( ) is a town and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens urban area, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo, whose name comes from the words αίγα/a ...
, connected some of the main
night life
Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, Bar (establishment), bars, nightclubs, party, parties, live music, conc ...
hubs of the city, namely the ones of Gazi (
Kerameikos
Kerameikos (, ) also known by its latinization of names, Latinized form Ceramicus, is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, Athens, Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient ci ...
station) with Psirri (
Monastiraki
Monastiraki (Modern Greek language, Greek: Μοναστηράκι, ''Monastiráki'', , literally ''little monastery'') is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the main shopping districts in Athens. The are ...
station) and the city centre (
Syntagma station
Syntagma (, ) is a station on the Athens Metro, located at Syntagma Square in the center of Athens, Greece. It serves as the transfer point between Line 3 (Athens Metro), Line 3, Line 2 (Athens Metro), Line 2 and the Athens Tram. When the Metro ...
). The line extension westwards towards
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...
was completed in 2022.
Suburban Railway (Proastiakos)

The Athens Suburban Railway, referred to as the ''
Proastiakos
The Proastiakos (; "suburban") is Greece's commuter rail service, run by Hellenic Train, on rail infrastructure owned by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) (lines) and GAIAOSE (buildings and Trains). These services connect a participating ...
'', connects
Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport
Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' , commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Su ...
to the city of
Aigio
Aigio, also written as ''Aeghion, Aegion, Aegio, Egio'' (, ; ), is a town and a former Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Achaea, West Greece, on the Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the mun ...
,
[ west of Athens, and Larissa station, the city's central rail station, with the port of Piraeus and ]Chalkida
Chalcis (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: , ), also called Chalkida or Halkida (Modern Greek: , ), is the chief city of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from ...
. The length of Athens's commuter rail network extends to , and is expected to stretch to by 2010.[ The Suburban Railway will be extended to ]Patras
Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...
.
Tram
Stasy operates a fleet of 60 vehicles, 35 'Ansaldobreda Sirio' and 25 'Alstom Citadis 305', which serve 60 stations,[ employ 345 people with an average daily occupancy of 65,000 passengers.][ The tram network spans a total length of and covers ten Athenian suburbs.][ The network runs from ]Syntagma Square
Syntagma Square (, , "Constitution Square") is the central square of Athens, Greece. The square is named after the Greek Constitution of 1844, Constitution that Otto of Greece, Otto, the first King of Greece, was obliged to grant after a popular a ...
to the southwestern suburb of Pireus, where the line splits in two branches; the first runs along the coastline toward the southern suburb of Voula
Voula () is a southern suburb of Athens along the Athens coast and former municipality in East Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, of which it is the seat and a municipal u ...
, while the other heads towards the port of Piraeus. The network covers the majority of the Athens coastline. There are plans to extend the tram network into the Ellinikon development area.
Railways and ferry connections
Athens is the hub of the country's national railway system (OSE), connecting the capital with major cities across Greece and abroad (Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
and Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
). Due to low demand and financial difficulties, all international rail services were suspended indefinitely in 2011. The Port of Piraeus
The Port of Piraeus () is the chief sea port of Athens, located on the Saronic Gulf on the western coasts of the Aegean Sea, the largest port in Greece and List of busiest ports in Europe, one of the largest in Europe.
The Chinese state-owned CO ...
connects Athens to the numerous Greek islands
Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.
The largest Greek island by ...
of the Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...
, with ferries departing, while also serving the cruise ships that arrive.
Road transport
Bus transport
OSY () (Odikes SYgkinonies), or ''Road Transport'', is the main operator of the bus network in Athens. It was created in 2011 after the merger of ETHEL and ILPAP, the two previous bus operators in Athens. As of 2017, its network consists of about 322 bus lines which span the Athens Metropolitan Area. As of 2020 has an operating staff of 4,669, and a fleet of 1,897 buses. Of those 1,897 buses, 301 run on compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...
and 286 are electric buses (trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es). All of the 286 trolleybuses are equipped to enable them to run on diesel in case of power failure
A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an el ...
.
Intercity and regional bus links are provided by KTEL from two InterCity Bus Terminals, Kifissos Bus Terminal A and Liosion Bus Terminal B, both located in the center-western part of the city. International bus links are provided by various private transport companies.
The daytime bus network in the city run between the hours of 05:00 – 00:00 generally. OSY has two bus routes which operate on a 24-hour basis; the 11 and 040.[ Most routes depart on a 30-60 minute frequency Mon-Sun.][ It also runs three intermunicipal night lines (which operate after midnight); X14, 500 and 790.] The Athens Transport Authority also operates four 24-hour express bus-lines from Athens International Airport
Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' , commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Su ...
to different parts of the city. The X95 links to the city centre
A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...
, the X93 links to Kifissos and Liosion bus stations, the X96 links to the Port of Piraeus
The Port of Piraeus () is the chief sea port of Athens, located on the Saronic Gulf on the western coasts of the Aegean Sea, the largest port in Greece and List of busiest ports in Europe, one of the largest in Europe.
The Chinese state-owned CO ...
and the X97 links to Elliniko metro station
Elliniko () is the current southern terminus on Athens Metro Line 2 since the Elliniko extension opened on 26 July 2013. With the opening of the station, travel time from Elliniko to Syntagma Square was reduced from 45 minutes (by car) to 20 mi ...
.[ As of 2021 the fare on these services was 5.50 euro per person.]
Bus depots in Athens
There are 8 bus depots in the Athens greater area.
Athens bus rolling stock
=New buses
=
=Second-hand buses (2021-2025)
=
Athens public transportation statistics
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Athens, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 71 min. 16% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 18 min, while 34% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 6.8 km, while 13% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.[ Material was copied from this source, which is available under ]
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Notes
References
{{Public transport in Athens
Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
*Athens