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Greece
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Greece: transportation in Athens
Greece: transportation in Athens
If you ever find your way to Athens, it would be good to know that public transport is not so easy to use by wheelchair users. The best mean though would be the metro (subway). As the Athens’ metro is quite new, all its stations are wheelchair accessible. Pay however attention to the anouncments while using it, as often elevators can be found “out of service” for some hours.
There is also the “green line”, which is the “old” railway. While it has big gaps between the platform and the car, some stations (Monastiraki, Omonoia and 2-3 others) have a ramp, which you can use. You can tell to the driver to place it, or if there is an employee of the station you can tell him too. Either way you can place it also by yourself (i.e. your assistant etc.). You will find it on the wall near the place where the first car stops.
The tram can also be considered accessible, but you will need a good “push” to get in, it is awfully slow and does not cover many districts in the city.
Buses from their side are quite old, their ramps almost always do not function, and their drivers do not know how to use them in most of the cases! Well, it is said that new buses are coming, so I guess you can hope for something better in the future!
Finally, there are no accessible taxis. There are some accessible vans which you can book, however they are quite expensive and not always available.- 3 Replies
I had no idea there was a metro in Athens – good to know.
It really is too bad that rental cars are always so expensive – travel is expensive enough!
It is quite new (17-16 years old I think!). It will be also expanded in the future, to cover more areas. As it is the only almost fully accessible mean of public transport in Athens, it is a big help for wheelchair users in the town!
In Thesaloniki also there are plans for the construction of a metro line. However, it takes them so long to proceed with them, that this subject has become a king of joke here!Travel indeed is expensive! Although, I think that there are always ways to keep the costs in a “normal” level 🙂
The only place I found relatively cheap wheelchair taxis is Barcelona. By the way very accessible city (I traveled there many years ago though).
Yes, I heard that there are so many ancient artifacts that every time they dig, they find something and then have to stop for a while!
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