Kiato railway station ( el, Σιδηροδρομικός Σταθμός Κιάτου, Sidirodromikós Stathmós Kiátou) is a station in

Kiato Kiato ( el, Κιάτο) is a town in the northern part of Corinthia in the Peloponnese, Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Sikyona. Kiato is situated on the Gulf of Corinth, near the mouth of the river Asopos. It has much tourist activit ...

in the northern

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. The station is located 1 km west of the town, near the A8 motorway between

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and

Patras ) , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset1 = +2 , ...

. It was opened on 9 July 2007. The station is served by Line 2 and Line 5 of the

Athens Suburban Railway The Athens Suburban Railway, ( el, Προαστιακός Αθήνας, Proastiakós Athínas) is a commuter rail service that connects the city of Athens with its metropolitan area and other regions beyond Attica, including Corinthia, Boeotia, Eu ...

between

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

and

Aigio Aigio, also written as ''Aeghion, Aegion, Aegio, Egio'' ( el, Αίγιο, Aígio, ; la, Aegium), is a town and a former municipality in Achaea, West Greece, on the Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipali ...

. It should not be confused with the now-closed station on the old

Piraeus–Patras railway The railway from Piraeus to Patras was a 230-kilometre long metre-gauge railway line in Greece that connected the port of Athens, Piraeus with Patras in the Peloponnese peninsula, via Athens "Peloponnese" central station and Corinth. It was opened ...

, which is located northeast of the current station, closer to the coast of the Corinthian Gulf.

History

It opened on 9 July 2007 as the western terminus of the new standard-gauge line from Athens Airport. In 2009, with the

Greek debt crisis Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis (Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that le ...

unfolding OSE's Management was forced to reduce services across the network. Timetables were cutback and routes closed, as the government-run entity attempted to reduce overheads. Initially, Kiato railway station served as an exchange point for passengers to

on the old metre-gauge line from Piraeus, but all regional services on the

metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

lines of the Peloponnese were suspended indefinitely in December 2010 for cost reasons. The old nearby was also closed. In 2017 OSE's passenger transport sector was privatised as

TrainOSE Hellenic Train S.A., formerly TrainOSE S.A. ( el, ΤραινΟΣΕ Α.Ε., pronounced ''trenosé'') is a private railway company in Greece which currently operates passenger and freight trains on OSE lines. TrainOSE was acquired in September 201 ...

, currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane infrastructure, including stations, remained under the control of OSE. In July 2022, the station began being served by

Hellenic Train Hellenic Train S.A., formerly TrainOSE S.A. ( el, ΤραινΟΣΕ Α.Ε., pronounced ''trenosé'') is a private railway company in Greece which currently operates passenger and freight trains on OSE lines. TrainOSE was acquired in September 201 ...

, the rebranded TranOSE.

Facilities

The raised station is assessed via stairs or a ramp. It has one

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

and one

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

, with station buildings located on platform 1, with access to the platform level via stairs or lifts. The Station buildings are equipped with a booking office (not yet operational) and toilets. At platform level, there are sheltered seating, an air-conditioned indoor passenger shelter (as of 2020 not open) and Dot-matrix display departure and arrival screens and timetable poster boards on both platforms. There is a large car park on-site, adjacent to the eastbound line. Currently, there is no local bus stop connecting the station.

Services

Since 15 May 2022, this station serves the following routes: *

Line 2 towards , with up to one train per hour; *

Line 5 towards , with six trains per day, from 07:00 to 20:00. Pending the

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of the Kiato–Aigio section, passengers must change between

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

trains at Kiato. Those travelling to and from the airport may also take lines 1 and 2, changing trains at Kato Acharnai. Pending the completion of the

Athens Airport–Patras railway The railway from Athens Airport to Patras is a double-track, standard-gauge railway line in Greece that, when completed, will connect Athens International Airport with Patras, the country's third-largest city. One of the largest railway projects ...

, passengers travelling to and from

may use the

bus lines which connect the city with Kiato, Diakopto and Aigio stations. Diakopto is also the terminus of the unique

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with ...

Kalavryta Kalavryta ( el, Καλάβρυτα) is a town and a municipality in the mountainous east-central part of the regional unit of Achaea, Greece. The town is located on the right bank of the river Vouraikos, south of Aigio, southeast of Patras and ...

Station layout

Gallery

File:Kiato_suburban_railway_station_2.JPG, A pair of

Siemens Desiro The Siemens Desiro (, , ) is a family of diesel or electric multiple unit passenger trains developed by Siemens Mobility, a division of the German Siemens AG conglomerate. The main variants are the Desiro Classic, Desiro ML, Desiro UK and the la ...

( OSE class 460) trains at Kiato station. File:OSE bus at Kiato railway station.JPG, Replacement bus service for the suspended rail connection to

. File:Special Transfer of K2 Ballast Cleaner to Kiato..webm, At Kiato station, the works in the first track of the station are about to begin. The project has consisted of various steps, and the final goal is the downgrade of the track, as in 2007, it was higher than the others so that the meter gauge trains could fit onto the platform. Now, as they're no more meter gauge trains there and the new line to Diakopto has almost been completed, the station must be ready. The works will start with the removal of the ballast and the track in order to dig the ground for the downgrading. The K2 is the ballast cleaner of Hellenic Railways and is the oldest maintenance rail machine that is still in use in the country. It was transferred on Sunday, 25 September, from A.I.Rentis depot to Kiato station, via Athens and the new line, hauled by MLW MX627 A 456 and A 458. This is a rare transfer not only because of the ballast cleaner but also for these MX627 locomotives that entered the line to Kiato.

References