Since February 14^th the traffic on the third line of the subway will be stopped for half a year between the station in front of the Ministry of Defense and the airport due to the construction works at the new station Aghia Paraskevi. The minister of environment and public works Georgios Souflias assured that in cooperation with the Ministry of Transportation alternative ways for transportation of the passengers have been provided.

More specifically: the traffic of the buses towards the subway station near the Ministry of Defense coming from the surrounding neighborhoods and back will be increased and also the traffic of the train between the suburbs in the part of town between the airport and Neratziotisa will be more intense.

Mr. Souflias stated that stopping the subway “is caused by the tragic mistake that when the tunnel was constructed the station Aghia Paraskevi was not intended to be made”. The station will be ready by the summer of 2010.

Parallel to this the construction works are in progress for the station at the Nomismatokopio which will be ready until September and the station in the Holargos neighborhood. There will be an underground parking lot built for the station at the Nomismatokopio with 630 parking spots and above it there will be a bus stop for transfers. The bus stop will act as a “filter” for the people who live close by and wish to get to the center of the town. A parking lot with 500 spots is also provided for the Aghia Paraskevi station.

Until the end of the year the new stations of the subway which are continuing from the neighborhood Peristeri – Dimarhio and Antoupoli will also be opened. Very fast are also going the construction works on the stations in the neighborhoods Ilioupouli and Alimnos and until the end of the year has to be finished also the subway station at Haidari.

Minister Souflias announced that the tender for the extension of the subway towards the western suburbs with the last station at Pieria continues. The extension will be 7.6 km long with six modern stations.

The research continues also of the grounds for building the fourth line of the subway which will start from the Galatsi neighborhood and will go to the University and from there passing through Pangrati will reach all the way to the northern suburb Maroussi.

The works on the Thessaloniki subway also continue after the problems which occurred when discovering an archeological site were solved.