Train and Rail Travel in Thessaly Page 2 (see Greece train map)

Larissa to Volos

After getting beyond the industrial zone, the line offers views of Mt Ossa and of the plain of Thessaly on either side of the train as it heads southeast towards Volos, passing through the villages of Halki, Melia, Kypseli, Armenio, Stefanovikio, and Rizomylos, before reaching the rail junction of Velestino.

Armenio is the approximate site of Homer's Armenion; Stefanovikio the site of ancient Kerkinion. A large, marshy lake was drained in the early 1960s to widen the standard gauge rail line. This was Lake Karla, its waters now used for irrigation and cultivation, some of its experimental. Vestinio was ancient Pherai. From here to Volos there are three rails, which accommodate trains of two different gauges. From Velestino, trains that come from Larissa cointinue to Volos over the defile of Pilav-Tepe. At Volos some old steam locomotives are stored in the station.

Volos to Pilio on the 60cm line

The line was built originally in 1903, and its 1971 closure during the colonels' dictatorship had one positive factor-the original equipment was never changed, but were merely restored for service when the line reopened. Interestingly, the railway penetrated this magical area long before paved roads came, in the 1970s. See Pilion for details on this unique and beautiful region. The line began for years at Ano Lechonia, though by now this may have changed. This single track railway was the idea of a Greek banker based in Constantinople named Mavrokordatos, who saw the potential of a railway link between Volos and the peninsula for transport of the latter's abundant produce. Before the train, people and goods both travelled by donkey on the old kalderimia (cobbled paths).

An Italian civil engineer, Evaristo de Kiriko, searched out the least difficult route in the 1890s, travelling on horseback around the rugged countryside. The line was built by a French construction firm, and in three phases: first the section between Volos and Ano Lechonia 1892-96; then through the mountains above the coast from Ano Gatzea and Ogla to Milies from 1896-1903; and finally, in 1904 running steam powered trains up through the mountains to Milies.

Stone arched viaducts and tunnel fascades were all done by local craftsmen. Only financial difficulties prevented the line from continuing on to Tsangardha. When 'the tiny train' began running again in 1995, it filled up right away with locals who remembered the train from their youth, when it got them to school in villages bigger than their own smaller ones.

Train Travel in Thessaly Greece page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

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