Next week a program for the reformation of the Greek public railways will be announced, which is prepared by the Minister of Transportation and Communication Evripidis Stilianidis. Right now, the losses from the public railways are ?2.5 million per day.

The stipulated measures include 3000 lay-offs through voluntary resignations, dividing the railway transportation organization into three separate firms, financing some of the lines, which are not that busy, re-examining the routes and increasing the price of tickets.

“Our goal is not only to keep the organization alive but also to develop it in order for it to function without creating surplus,” said minister Stilianidis.

The EU approved plan stipulates:

1.    Increasing the stock capital of TRAINOSE. The State is ready to disburse the losses of ?160 million for 2008 and the ones for the first three months of 2009 and to deposit a certain amount, which will ensure the normal functioning of the railway transport organization.

2.    The price of tickets will be increased and mostly the ones of the fast trains. With the increase, the train tickets will be 80% more expensive than the bus tickets.

3.    About 2000-3000 employees will sign a request for voluntary resignation, because they are older than 50 years old.

The public railways will be equipped with modern technologies and the employees, who will leave have been trained to work with older technologies.

“We need to note that over 6000 employees are older than 50 years old and have length of service of over 25 years. They cannot wait to use their right to leave voluntarily,” says an employee of the public railways for “Imerisia” newspaper.

4.    The Organization will be divided into three separate firms and this way it can be used by private figures and it can be financed by the State.

The first and biggest firm will remain with the name “Railway Transportation Organization,” which will undertake the biggest part of the OSE debt and will have the final word on the actions of the other two firms. Most of the employees will remain in this firm.