Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway

Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway
Overview
Status	Fully operational
Locale	Greece (Central Macedonia,; East Macedonia and Thrace)
Termini	Thessaloniki Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; Alexandroupoli Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Operation
Opened	1896
Owner	OSE
Operator(s)	TrainOSE
Technical
Line length	440.8 km (273.9 mi)
No. of tracks	single track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	no
Route map
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The Thessaloniki–Alexandroupoli railway is an about 441 km long railway in northern Greece connecting the Central Macedonian city of Thessaloniki with Alexandroupoli in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, via Serres. At the Strymonas station there is a connection towards Sofia. As of 2015^[update], there is regular passenger service to Alexandroupoli with connecting services to Dikaia, as well as international services to Sofia and via Skopje to Belgrade, while the international service to Istanbul ("Friendship Express") remains suspended.

Course

The western terminus of the Thessaloniki–Svilengrad railway is the New Railway Station, Thessaloniki. It runs north passing Kilkis, until it turns east at the shore of Dojran Lake. It runs along the north shore of Lake Kerkini, and crosses the river Strymonas near Sidirokastro. The line north to Sofia (border crossing Promachonas/Kulata) branches off here. The railway continues east along Serres and Drama. It crosses the river Nestos at Paranesti, and follows it until Toxotes. It passes Xanthi and Komotini, and reaches the Aegean Sea at Alexandroupoli, where it ends at the Alexandroupoli railway station, which is further connected to Dikaia via the Alexandroupoli–Svilengrad railway.

The line was opened in 1896, to extend the preexisting railway line from Istanbul towards Central Macedonia.

The Thessaloniki–Svilengrad railway is used by the following passenger services: