TrainOSE

Greece has received one bid for its railway maintenance company Rosco, the country's privatization agency TAIPED said on Tuesday.

Greek railway service operator Trainose, which was taken over by Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane last year, submitted the only binding offer.

Greek rail workers will be holding a series of stoppages on Monday and a 24-hour strike on Tuesday, protesting staff shortages and the government's plans to privatize railway carriage maintenance firm Rosco.

Greek rail workers will be holding a series of stoppages and a strike, rail operator Trainose announced on Thursday, without giving a reason for the action.

According to the announcement, workers will walk off the job on Monday for three hours starting at 5 a.m., 1 p.m. and 9 p.m., while on Tuesday, they will stage a 24-hours strike.

Piraeus, Greece's biggest port and one of the largest in the Mediterranean, is finally getting a direct rail link to Athens International Airport, starting next month.

Starting on February 1, Piraeus will become a terminus for the Proastiakos suburban railway, connecting the port to the airport at Spata, northeast of the capital.

The government and Greece's creditors have agreed that the contract for the concession to the ETVA BIPE - Goldair consortium of a freight center on a 0.59-square kilometer plot at Thriasio, western Attica, owned by state railway property firm Gaiaose, will be approved in Parliament by next month.

The Proastiakos suburban railway will add four new services as of Monday on the section connecting Athens to Halkida on the southern coast of Evia, according to railway operator Trainose.

From Athens there will be additional services at 5.51 a.m. and 3.51 p.m., while two additional services will depart from Halkida to Athens at 7.26 a.m. and 5.26 p.m.

Italian railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane attributes great significance to the acquisition of 100 percent of Greek operator Trainose, while there will be changes in the operation mode of the local railway company now it is moving away from the state's control.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (right) and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni observe as Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane SpA CEO Renato Mazzoncini and the president of Greece's state sell-off fund (TAIPED), Lila Tsitsoyiannopoulou, sign a memorandum sealing the sale of railway service operator Trainose to the Italian company, in the context of the 1st Intergovernmental Congress of Greec

Greece has agreed to sell its railways company to Italy's own state-owned operator for 45 million euros ($54 million) as part of its privatization drive.

Commuters using the Athens Metro to the international airport and those planning to take OSE trains will have to reschedule their means of transportation for Thursday, September 14, as the Railway employees have declared a 24-hour strike in response to the signing of the sale of or TRAINOSE.