THESSALONIKI – It was an idea first proposed in 1910, with planning in the 1980’s and work beginning in 2006 and, finally, the long-delayed opening of the underground, remote-controlled driverless metro is due to open on Nov. 30.

That was announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was speaking at an event in Greece’s second-largest city, little more than a week before than he’s due to make a major policy speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

“After many inaugurations that were not actually inaugurations, after tarpaulins, presentations and disputes, I am pleased to announce that the Thessaloniki Metro will be delivered – not inaugurated, but delivered,” he said.

The 2.26 billion euro ($2.89 billion) project was built by a Greek-Italian consortium overseen by Elliniko Metro,  the Greek state-owned company which oversaw construction of the Athens Metro and Athens Tram. It will be operated by the Thema Franco-Italian consortium.

Work on the Kalamaria extension didn’t begin until 2013 and that won’t open until 2025, it was said. There will be 18 stations and 14.4 kilometers (8.9 miles) of tunnels. Construction was set back by archaeological discoveries and Greece’s 2010-18 economic and austerity crisis.

“Thessaloniki is changing. It is changing at a very fast pace. No government has implemented more projects for Thessaloniki than this government. And this is something that, I believe, the citizens of Thessaloniki are beginning to realise”, Mitsotakis also said.

“I completely understand the suspicion and hesitancy towards commitments, which the citizens of Thessaloniki have heard many times, but the reality has always been different … we have escaped from the practices of the past, we have proven that what we say we can implement within specific timetables,” he said.

In October, 2023 Mitsotakis, at a contract signing ceremony, said the metro would open by the end of 2024, which is a year later than the last deadline announced but this time he said it will happen.

“We made a bold decision to use private expertise, the best at a European level, in order to ensure the project’s smooth and safe operation,” Mitsotakis said at the signing, although the total cost of the project isn’t known yet.

The system was supposed to open in 2012. Mitsotakis said the 250-million euro ($262.76 million) contract signing was especially important because “recent events have brought back to mind the sins of the past, when we did not know who was responsible for maintaining important infrastructure paid for by Greek taxpayers.”

He was given a tour of the archaeological site lying beneath the Agia Sofia station, where the ceremony took place and where, as at the Venizelos Street station, revealed archaeological finds from the dig.

Mitsotakis also announced at a previous Thessaloniki International Fair that a new archaeological museum would be built specifically to house archaeological artifacts unearthed during the construction of the metro.

In 2020 though the International Association of Byzantine Studies (AIEB) wrote to Mitsotakis to protest the removal of antiquities from their original location, saying that the discoveries constituted “a cultural and scientific jewel” and that, “It would be a tragedy to jeopardize (Greece’s reputation for monument preservation) by squandering the treasure of the Thessaloniki material and data through an unnecessarily hasty construction project,” saying they should be left on site.