Transport for Athens (), officially the Athens Urban Transport Organisation (, , ), is the operator of

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 ...

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 ...

, Greece. Transport for Athens, through its subsidiary companies, operates metro,

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 ...

, trolleybus and bus services in the

Athens metropolitan area The Athens metropolitan area () spans within the Attica region and consists of 58 municipalities plus parts of East Attica and West Attica, having reached a population of 3,638,281 according to the 2021 census. The municipalities of Athens an ...

Companies

As of July 2011, the Athens Mass Transit System consists of: * OSY S.A. () ** Βus network (internal combustion engine buses, trolleybuses and battery electric buses). *

STASY Urban Rail Transport S.A. (, - pronounced as wikt:στάση, στάση "bus/train stop" ), commonly abbreviated as STASY, is a Greek public transport operator of the Athens Metro and the Athens Tram. It is the metro and tram subsidiary of T ...

S.A. () ** The

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 ...

system ** The

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 ...

with 3 lines. Transport for Athens also coordinates the

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 ...

, using Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) lines, operated by Hellenic Train S.A. under 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 ...

'' brand. The section between Piraeus, Magoula and Koropi is regarded as the urban part.

Recent History

In March 2011, with the Greek Government Law 3920 Attiko Metro Operational Company (AMEL S.A.) absorbed Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways S.A. and TRAM S.A. and was renamed "STASY S.A." (). Also ETHEL S.A. absorbed

ILPAP I.L.P.A.P. () was a public Greek company, part of the Athens Urban Transport Organisation, responsible for the operation of the trolleybuses network. ILPAP was founded on December 14, 1970, and since 1998 the company was owned by the Athens Urba ...

S.A. and was renamed as "OSY S.A." (). The mergers were officially announced on June 10, 2011. While mergers at the top management level took place quickly, integration of the former companies at operations and support level proceeds slowly. ISAP, ETHEL and ILPAP were wholly owned by OASA. AMEL and Tram S.A. until June 2011 were subsidiaries of Attiko Metro S.A. (), a company that also wholly owned by the Greek government. Hellenic Train (formerly Trainose until May 2022) S.A., which absorbed the former Proastiakos S.A. in 2007, became independent of the OSE group in 2008 and until 2017 it is a separate private company. OASA regularly conducts

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

and videography competitions both in black-and-white and in colour for photos taken while inside its means of transport.

Fare collection system

Up until the 80s, fare collectors were commonplace in all means of mass transport in Athens. Their replacement was a money box placed at the front end of the vehicles, next to the driver, where passengers would deposit their fare in cash, usually coinage. A decade later, they were replaced with validation machines and paper tickets. The end of the single-use paper ticket came in 2017, when it was succeeded by the ATH.ENA electronic stored-value cards and tickets (stylized as ATH.ENA CARD and ATH.ENA TICKET respectively). Tickets are now rechargeable and can be loaded with up to 5-day unlimited ticket, but not with long term fare products, discount tickets (support discontinued in January 2019) or monetary value. Cards (personalised and anonymised) can hold all fare types and a maximum of €50, with the exception of discount tickets which are tied to personalised cards. Tickets and cards are validated contaclessly in validation machines inside buses, trolleybuses and trams. Suburban railway trains and the

utilize

turnstile A turnstile (also called a gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce One-way traffic#One-way traffic of people, one-way ...

s. The ATH.ENA ticket and ATH.ENA card can also be used in suburban railway trains starting from Magoula or Dhekelia and onwards. In addition to ATH.ENA Ticket and ATH.ENA Card, OASA introduced the

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) for making sec ...

system in Athens and surrounding areas, which is codenamed tap2ride.It was introduced on a pilot basis in Athens International Airport Express buses (Χ93, Χ95, Χ96, Χ97) on 24 April 2024. It was fully implemented on 15 January 2025 on all means of transport. All contactless debit and credit cards issued in Greece and also most international cards supporting contactless payment, are accepted for travel on all means of transport (Buses, Trolleybuses, Metro, Tram and Suburban Railway). This works in the same way for the passenger as an ATH.ENA Ticket and ATH.ENA Card, including the use of Fare capping. Mobile payments - such as

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. Supported on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, Apple Pay digitizes and can replace a credit or debi ...

and Google Pay - are also accepted in the same way as contactless payment cards. The fares are the same as those charged on a debit or credit card, including the same daily capping. Paid rides from and to the Athens International Airport are not counted towards the daily fare cap which is 4.10€ or 4 rides per day. Each paid ride towards the daily fare cap includes 90 minutes of free transfers.

Depots

Metro

Eirini depot (Line 1)
Piraeus depot (Line 1)
Thisseio depot (Line 1)
Sepolia depot (Lines 2 & 3)
Stavros depot (Lines 2 & 3)
Eleonas depot (Lines 2 & 3)

Tram

Elliniko depot

Trolleybus

Attiki depot (Closed for trolleybuses. Used by maintenance vehicles only)
Gazi depot (Closed between 2011 and 2014. Converted to an event venue)
Kokkinos Mylos depot
Neo Faliro depot (Closed)
Rouf depot (Opened in 2011 to gradually replace Attiki, Neo Faliro and Gazi)

Bus

Agios Dimitrios depot
Ano Liosia depot
Anthousa depot
Elliniko depot (Closed in 2018 to make space for the

Hellenikon Metropolitan Park The Hellinikon Metropolitan Park (also called "the Ellinikon") is an urban development under construction in Hellinikon, Athens, Greece, on the site of the former Hellenikon International Airport. It is to include a park as well as luxury homes ...

)
Petrou Ralli depot
Rentis depot
Thriaseio depot (Used only for laying up retired buses)
Votanikos depot

Gallery

File:20140622-Anthoupoli-62D304 (7872).jpg,

train (3rd generation stock) File:Tram TA20049 at Syntagma Square.jpg,

Citadis 305 vehicle (2nd generation) File:OSE Baureihe 660.jpg,

train File:Bus on Amalias Street in Athens on December 21, 2020.jpg, Mercedes - Benz O405N bus File:Bus at Athens Airport (line X95).jpg, Express bus between the city and the airport File:Athens Van Hool trolleybus on Patission Street in 2012.jpg, Athens trolley bus in downtown Athens

References

External links

OASA companies established in 2011

O.A.S.A. - Athens Urban Transport Organisation

STASY S.A.

OSY S.A.

Non-OASA companies

TrainOSE suburban services

O.S.E. - Hellenic Railways Organisation S.A.

Hellenic Ministry of Transportation and Communications
{{Public transport in Athens * Intermodal transport authorities Rail transport in Attica