Railway stop left in limbo
A new station on the Proastiakos suburban railway has been ready since last September but has not yet opened to the public because it has been caught in a bureaucratic limbo that means it cannot be hooked up to the power grid. The station in Metamorphosis, on the northern outskirts of Athens, was only the second new stop to be built following the Athens Olympics in 2004. Sources said that when the company that runs the suburban railway attempted to get the electricity connected, it was informed that the station had not been awarded a permit by the town-planning office. The Prefecture of Attica ruled that the station could not be given a green light because it was not located on land that allows construction, but was situated on the Attiki Odos highway. This snag has led to months of exchanges of letters and documents between Proastiakos SA, the prefecture, the town-planning office and the Public Power Corporation but it is still not clear when – or if – the station might open.
