The European Transit System That Doesn’t Feel European

Damn even RM Transit is roasting Thessaloniki metro now 💀

Athens didn't just rip out their historic tram system, they converted it to an electric trolleybus system. In fact, the Athens trolleybus system is the largest of all countries of the former Western Bloc, and the largest in the EU. That also means Athens has had an electric bus system for much longer than many systems introducings BEBs now.

When I visited Athens, I was shockingly impressed by just how effective and useful the metro was with only three lines. I was able to get nearly everywhere I wanted to go, and it was quite quick, especially compared to the horrendous traffic there.

I remember suggesting the video a year ago! As a greek myself, I can confirm that the analysis is very accurate and to the point. Regarding the Thessaloniki metro, our government says that it's ready and that it will open to the public this fall, but I have my suspicions...

Thessaloniki metro allegedly was supposed to open in 2020, then 2021, then 2022, summer of 2023, no nevermind summer of 2024, no November 2024 (First hole dug was 1986)

As a daily commuter on the Athens public transport system i must say that it is fairly efficient. However my main complaints, that most others share, it the fact that 1) Buses are infrequent and unreliable, especially in the northern suburbs that are highly populated areas with no metro connectivity, 2) 24hour service is not a thing especially on the weekends with buses, confusingly, running until 21:30, the metro until 1:30am and suburban rail until 23:30, 3) the tracks on the Syntagma - Ethniki Amyna section on M3 are in need of maintenance for quite some time so the trains run at a reduced speed and 4) Line M1 is in desperate need of maintenance and new rolling stock (recently, 3 trains from M2 and M3, the first generation metro trains, had to be transferred to M1 in order to support it). Overall, yes we have a solid public transport network, but there is still work to be done. Also thank you for this video! I have been manifesting it for quite some time now!

Well, as an athenian I did not expect such high praise. I always thought our transit system was underfunded and not especially well designed. I do see the positives you mentioned, but the main problem is that there is nowhere near enough transit to cover the whole city and so it's always full

Something that didn't come through your video is the super simple connection between the airport and Piraeus which makes for island vacationing that is so simple. My wife and I were in Greece last year and we didn't need to take a cab to get to our ferry.

When my mom was a university student in thessaloniki, its metro was almost finished.... im on the last year of university

I loved the stations in the centre of the city with their ancient displays. The metro is like a museum at these stations. Beautiful.

Athenians colloquially call line one of the metro the "Electrical", since it was one of the first appliances of electricity in Greece. So I always like to say that "I was doing tasks in electrical" when I was going somewhere by line one 😂 Greetings from Pireaus, Greece 🇬🇷

Incredible video and thank you for properly utilising the footage! It's so nice to see Athens finally represented here and getting a comprehensive and positive evaluation! As a note of importance: every metro station is thankfully linked to multiple bus and trolleybus lines, which act as feeders for the metro network and despite their aging fleet, still have very frequent services, especially compared to any North American city. Plus, along with all other rail, the fares are united and used in the metro and the bus as well! Note 2: the metro receives more than 2.5 million riders per day. It's traffic is much bigger than well above 1.5 million you could say! But we only rely on ticket data, which don't count in all days and count only certain periods in these said days. Note 3: It wasn't mentioned, although it's very, very important for any visitor, but trains to and from the Airport arrive every 36 minutes. So, especially if you're coming from the direction of Piraeus, if you're not already in an airport train, you'll have to disembark at Plakentias and wait there, or take a suburban train as an alternative, if possible. Line 3 has the direct connection between the port, the centre and the airport but service through the entirely of the line is very infrequent. Service is very, very frequent only up to Doukissis Plakentias station, for which you have to be vigilant for the following: as it's the intermediate terminal of line 3, many times trains are averted to the direction of Piraeus so as to evade the track change after Plakentias and make services automatically more frequent. So, you have to go to the opposite platform in that case. I think these should have been added in the video, but other than that it addressed all the main elements. Good job @rmtransit!

Bravo Greece! Very beautiful. Καλησπέρα from Sofia :)

In 2008 i visited Athens for 2 weeks while staying in Koropi. I do not speak Greek and only had the dumb luck to grab a metro map that someone left behind. It was super convenient to check a 0.8 euro ticket that got me to almost everywhere in the city During a different visit in 2017 i also enjoyed following the arrival of buses live in their app, such that you always knew when you need to be at the station

Finally a video about the transportation about Athens !😍😍 But here some miss points: 1. The Athens metro stations are also museums, they host antiquities in some. 2.the line 4 is gonna be a fully automated systems of driverless trains. 3. The suburban system is gonna be extended to the port of Rafina and the town of Lauvrio Anyways, good video!

The Olympics always demands new transit systems are built, you hope when they build them that they're future proofed (I.e. serve a purpose post-games), it's one lasting legacy that many host cities do get, if they get it right

All in all very accurate video (Greek here). I would only object about the train line that goes to Thessaloniki, which is really underdeveloped, running on outdated systems which most times they don’t even work. A proof of that was the tragedy we had a year ago, when to trains collided on full speed, as they were running on the same line without being aware 😔 people died, young university students mainly, but still nothing is fixed yet. The same lights that were not working, still don’t and the train is unsafe. The tragic event happened at an area called Tempi if you want to look it up. Thanks for the nice video, anyhow.

An other fun fact about Athens: it has the largest trollybus network in the western world (which makes sence for such a mountainous city) and the diesel busses are some of the older ones in regular use in europe, featuring O 405s from the 1990s - it is the right kind of weather for them not to rust and the greeks have always been of the persuasion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it and with decent maintanance busses can last for ever. There are generaly speaking lots of classic cars and trucks and busses in Greece, just adds to the apeal of the country as a holliday destination if that's the sort of ting one is in to.

Athens and Pireaus also have significant trolleybus systems which link everything together.

Omg you’ve been to Athens! My partner’s originally from Athens so we go every year. Their metro is one of my favourites in the world, lines 2 and 3 so clean and efficient and I love all the trains. Even line 1 is great, being old and even with the trains covered in graffiti it gives it so much character