According to Proto Thema, the Athens Metro experienced several days of intense overcrowding, marked by packed trains, repeated delays, and passengers forced to skip one or even two departures because of the crush.
On Monday, October 20, Syntagma station saw a record 68,400 passenger crossings—well above the daily average of 64,000—without counting ticket evaders.
That same day, between 8:10 and 8:45 a.m., only seven trains on the blue line passed through Syntagma, with an average gap of five minutes, creating extreme congestion on the platforms.
STASY says that, as of Monday, service has returned to normal (10 train passages with an average interval of 3.5 minutes), while the number of operational trains has increased from 40 in 2019 to 56 today.
STASY, the operating company, said the disruption was caused by a train being urgently withdrawn from service due to a safety-related fault indicator. The company added that traffic flow returned to normal the following day, with 10 trains per 35-minute period and an average headway of 3.5 minutes.
According to STASY, October is traditionally the busiest month of the year, coinciding with the full resumption of the city’s activities after summer.
Passenger traffic has also been steadily increasing: in 2024, ridership rose by 8% compared to 2023, while in the first nine months of 2025 it recorded another 5.1% rise, reaching 159,510,570 ticket validations, up from 151,430,600 during the same period in 2024.
Source: Πρώτο Θέμα
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