Greek rail auth. ERGOSE requests financing for Balkan rail from Brussels

The clock for European funding of three key railway projects, totaling 3 billion euros, which will strengthen the country's development prospects and geopolitical role, has begun to tick. According to information, railway network  project manager ERGOSE, has officially submitted the funding requests to Connecting Europe Facilities II (CEF II) for the two projects belonging to the Greek side of the Bosphorus Bypass, as well as for the traintracks to connect to the port of Patras.

In order to achieve the best possible mix of funding for the two major projects in Northern Greece, the requests were made in sections, as they have a huge technical scope and a high budget. The two projects, which are included in ERGOSE's gigantic 4 billion euro package, concern the upgrading of the existing Alexandroupolis-Ormenio line, with a budget of 1.07 billion euros, and the construction of a new railway line in the Thessaloniki-Toxotes section, with a budget of 1, 68 billion euros.

The ERGOSE mega project that bypasses the Bosphorus

In particular, Alexandroupolis-Ormenio was divided into two sections, Alexandroupolis-Pythio and Pythio-Ormenio. The request to CEF II concerns the whole budget. As for Thessaloniki-Toxotes, its final section from Nea Karvali to Toxotes Xanthi has already joined CEF II with 250 million euros. So the new request concerns a budget of approximately 1.43 billion. euros for the sections Thessaloniki-Nea Madytos and Nea Madytos-Nea Karvali.

The latest request to the "Connecting Europe" mechanism is for the project of completing the new double railway line of Patras, in the long-suffering section that will connect Rio with the new port of Patras. The budget of the project amounts to 477 million euros.

Double safety cushion