There will be changes in the Athens metro and Tram services on Saturday due to the parades for Greek Independence Day, celebrated every March 25.
Specifically, according to a STASY (fixed-rail transport company) announcement, the metro station at Syntagma will close at 08:00 on Saturday and will reopen after the completion of the parade. Trains will pass through the station without stopping.
Meanwhile, trams routes will end at FIX station on line 6 from the start of the shift until 13.30, while line 7 starting at Asklipio, Voula and ending at Agia Triada, Piraeus will temporarily end at SEF station from 09:00 until 14:00 and at Paleo Dimarhio from 11:00 until 13:00.
Additionally, the Athens metro employees' union has declared a work stoppage on Friday, from 21:00 until the end of the shift.
According to employees, chronic problems are hampering the operation of fixed rail transport services provided by STASY, as well as the services to 1.5 million passengers that use the metro everyday, so that employees are daily faced with an unequal battle against these adversities.
The issues that are raised by the union include, among others: a lack of drivers, technicians, station masters and specialised railway personnel. A lack of trains and spare parts and problems in the railway infrastructure, as well as a failure to uphold what has been agreed.
Meanwhile, the Athens metro staff union SELMA on Friday announced a warning 24-hour strike next Tuesday, March 28, in protest over problems that hamper the safe provision of rail transport services for the roughly 1.5 million passengers that use the metro system each day.
Among problems raised by the union were a shortage of some 847 staff in various positions, the lack of new trains and of parts for trains and other rail infrastructure, the failure to uphold agreements and the need to update and review procedures for work on the lines and the network, as well as others.
"For us railway workers, it is the right time, in agreement with the demands of French workers and after the tragic accident in Tempi, to highlight the consequences of the privatisation policies, the anti-labour laws on pensions, on labour agreements, of the poverty and unemployment that now threatens the entire planet," the announcement said.
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