Karampogias Ioannis Project Group I Directorate
NEW HIGH SPEED DOUBLE LINE RAILWAY IN THE PATRAS REGION (FROM Ch. 119 TO Ch. 132)
The planning of the railway in the area of Patras concerns the last section of P.ATH.E.P., of about 13 km between Rio and New Port of Patras and connection with the existing railway line to Pirgos and Olympia. The new Railway line is double track with electrification and signaling, which follows the alignment of the existing single track line.
UNDERGROUND SECTION (FROM Ch. 124 TO Ch. 128)
The main characteristic of the project is the underground section, for a length of about 4 km and the new underground central station of Patras. The underground section starts from Agia area and ends at Akti Dimeon and continuous up to new port on a surface alignment for about 2 km.
AG. DIONISIOS CENTRAL STATION
ďƒ˜ The central station is located at Agios Dionisios area and is constructed underground at a depth of 15m in an area of 30.000m2.
CENTRAL STATION PLAN
ďƒ˜ The new central station is developed in five levels including the level of the railway lines and includes various facilities (offices, conference centers, cinemas, stores, parking, etc) and about 30.000m2 green spaces.
LEVEL 0, 1 & 2 OF CENTRAL STATION
LEVEL 3 & 4 OF CENTRAL STATION
CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE OF UNDERGROUND SECTION ďƒ˜ The construction of the underground section and mainly the section close to the existing port because of the very poor geotechnical conditions and the high water table level in an urban area, requests for heavy construction methods including improvement of ground condition with jet grouting, diaphragmatic walls and water pumping.
PROJECT COST Because of the requirement of heavy construction methods the project cost increases dramatically.
The project cost it is estimated up to 700 million euro without the cost for the central station facilities.
According to the cost-benefit study, due to the very high cost of RIO-PATRA section the total project of KIATO-PATRA becomes non bankable . No funding is available up to date.
EXISTING RAILWAY LINE
The existing railway line is not in operation in the KIATO – PATRA section with the exception of few kilometers around PATRA where a suburban train operates. Because of the bad condition of the existing railway infrastructure, there is general requests of the habitants and the local authorities for the improvement of the suburban train .
CONCLUSIONS & QUESTIONS According to the plan for the new railway in PATRAS there is a need of a very high funding which is not available and taking into account the nowadays crises there is low possibility to become available in the short term future. On the other hand the connection of the new high speed railway line of KIATO-PATRA with the new port and the improvement of the suburban in PATRAS is a necessity .
Is it possible the improvement, normalization, electrification and signaling of the existing railway line for a short term period to facilitate the above requests ? Are there any acceptable urban planning methods based on your experience to support such a project? ERGOSE ON THE BASES OF THE URBAN PLANNING RESULTS IS READY TO ELABORATE THE CONSTRUCTION DESIGN OF THE PROJECT AND REQUEST FOR THE FUNDING.