Orestiada railway station


The Orestiada railway station, is a railway station that serves the town of Orestiada, in Evros, northeastern Greece. The station open in 1996, at a cost of €4.5 million.

History

The station was built the mid-1990s, to replace an older station, and officially inaugurated on 16 September 1996. At the time, the line saw a large amount of commercial and passenger traffic and was the fourth busiest and third largest station in Northern Greece. In 2009, with the Greek debt crisis unfolding OSE's Management was forced to reduce services across the network. Timetables where cutback and routs closed, as the government-run entity attempted to reduce overheads. Services from Orestiada to Alexandroupoli were cut back to three trains a day, reducing the reliability of services, and passenger numbers. With passenger footfall in sharp decline, the station building was closed, and mothballed, less than 15 years after it first opened. On 11 February 2011, all cross border routs where closed and international services are ended. Thus, only two routes now connect Orestiada with Thessaloniki and Athens, while route time increased as the network was "upgraded". Services to/from Ormenio where replaced by bus. The route time increased and reached by 2014 up to 2 hours 20 mins for Alexandroupolis and 9 hours for Thessaloniki. With Usage down, the station suffered repeated attacks from vandalism, with the station clock and the Greek flag stolen, and the walls covered in graffiti. The canopies became shelters for immigrants entering from Turkey, the overpass filled syringes, some even broken windows, and benches. However, the main building was left secured.
In 2014, the station building was refurbished and reopened after begging closed for 3 years.

Facilities

The entrance is equipped with wheelchair ramps.

Services

, the station is only served by two daily pairs of regional trains Alexandroupoli–Ormenio.