Greece’s second-largest city gets new metro station

​​​​​​​By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - A much-anticipated metro station in Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki opened its doors to the public Saturday.

"The metro is the most modern in Europe, as Thessaloniki deserves," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at an inauguration ceremony that was attended by several ministers and President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

"It is a tangible project that, until the very last moment, I am certain many in the city doubted would become a reality. But here it is. To put it differently, we said it, and we did it -- a symbol of progress for Macedonia and all of Greece" he added.

The line spans 9.6 kilometers (6 miles) and includes two independent single-track tunnels, 13 stations and a 17-minute travel time.

Modernized with fully air-conditioned and driverless trains, it is estimated it will serve 250,000 passengers daily.

The metro, which was the brainchild of former mayor Sotiris Kouvelas, went through several phases of tendering, technical evaluations and delays until it was completed in 2024.

In 2006, under the government of Kostas Karamanlis, the start of construction began.

That same year, construction at the site was stalled due to archeological discoveries; a Byzantine-era market and a Roman cemetery bringing to light the city's ancient history.

At a later stage, the Central Archaeological Council agreed to detach the antiquities and reposition them at one of the stations.