Athens Metro, Alstom-Siemens EMU's
Today, i would like to present to you, the first generation of EMU's of Athens Metro lines 2 and 3. In 1998-9 the consortium of ADtranz, Siemens and Alstom companies supplied all the necessary parts to the Greek Shipyards and 28 trainsets were constructed to serve lines 2 and 3 of the new built, at that time, lines. As i am writing this article, they have already been in service for 14 years and have proven to be pretty solid and reliable pieces of machinery. Let's check them out...
The six cars long EMU's were constructed in 1999 by the consortium of ADtranz-Siemens-Alstom and the Greek Shipyards. 28 trains totally serve lines 2 and 3 (Aigaleo - D.Plakentias) of the Athens Metro. They operate at 750 V DC, at a maximum speed of 80 km/h, and 1 m/second of accelaration. In terms of power, four out of six vehicles carry 16 motors of 153 kW each. Passengers are infromed about train stops by an automatic announcement system and each car is provided with fresh air via ventilators.
Their external appearance looks solid, simple, yet a bit old fashioned, i would say. They are painted in a simple livery, based on alluminium silver, gray and orange colours. They feature an electronic destination display at each front, sliding automatic doors, 4 on each side of each car and warning signals at each cars' end, as they are not articulated trains for the passengers to be aware of the danger of falling between the cars.
The interior is simple and solid looking, as well. The basic colours here are the inox silver on the doors and door frames, gray and white on the seats and a soft pink colour which covers the window and seat panels.
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| A general overview of the interior, notice the route maps above the doors |
The interior of each car is separated into seating areas and standing pasengers' sections. There are ten seating "booths" on each car (five on each side) and the rest of the space is used for standing pasengers. Each seating area includes four seats and the standing areas include handling rails and bus type handlings.
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| This is what a seating area looks like seen form the side |
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| Another view of seating areas. You can also see the handling rails for standing passengers.
After travelling with them for over ten years i can say that they have proven to be solid and reliable. They have certain disadvantages, though. They do not have air conditioning system, they are noisy and their suspension system does not offer the greatest comfort to the passengers, as they do not absorb much of the vibration the bogies produce. But again, their solid structural quality and their reliability are great advantages for these EMU's. Finally, here is a video tribute, produced by myself, starring the Alstom-Siemens EMU's.
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