Rail transport

A station manager of the Athens metro was beaten up by two men who refused to wear their mask on the train, the public company responsible for managing the metro, tram and electric railway, Urban Rail Transport (STASY), said on Wednesday.

The first of five state-of-the-art White Arrow trains will arrive in Thessaloniki from Italy on January 18, according Italian-owned railway service operator Trainose.

It is set to make its passenger debut on the Athens-Thessaloniki route on March 25, on the occasion of the bicentennial of the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821.

Countries in Europe on Dec. 23 began easing travel bans on Britain put in place to contain a new strain of COVID-19 that U.K. officials believe spreads faster, as the U.S. said it had now vaccinated one million people.

France and Britain will reopen cross-border travel on Dec. 23 after a snap 48-hour ban to curb the spread of a new coronavirus variant threatened U.K. supply chains.

Much of Europe swiftly banned British travelers and U.K. freight entering their nations after the discovery of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 in Britain.

The Silk Route train connecting Turkey to China passed through Ankara on Dec. 7.

This new connectivity project called Iron Silk Road or Central Corridor is delivering its first export cargo through railway from Turkey to China, which is a short, safe, economical, and climate-friendly corridor between the Asian and European continents.

The first train carrying export goods from Turkey to China departed from Istanbul on Dec. 4, said the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

The train "will follow the Trans Caspian East-West Middle Corridor via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, covering 8,693 kms, passing two continents, two seas, five countries and forwarding its freight to China in 12 days," according to the ministry statement.

Athens commuters will be without metro and ISAP electric railway services on Thursday, as workers at the fixed-track transport operator STASY joined a 24-hour strike announced by Greece's umbrella civil servants' union ADEDY, demanding protective measures for employees and mass hirings in the health sector.

Crises tend to reveal what people, groups and organizations are truly made of, and this is especially so with the current health crisis.

The decision announced on Monday by the STASY union of fixed-rail public transport workers to go on a 24-hour strike on Thursday - leaving the Greek capital without metro, ISAP electric railway and tram services - is one such example.

STASY staff join the 24-hour strike

Part of the third metro line will start working by the end of the month. Eight of the stations are now ready and testing of the trains between them have started.