Greece wants to sell its rail system in entirity. Apparently Russia is very interrested.
That’s one of the things that happens when you spend yourself into financial oblivion by promising everything to everyone. There’s a lesson here that transcends railroading.
John Timm
In other words, they are not planning to auction off the various train services as Franchises but sell everything including all the physical plant to one buyer?
http://www.rttnews.com/2088344/greece-to-auction-off-railroads.aspx?type=gn&SimRec=1
They are just privatizing the nationally owned railroads. That would make them just like ours PRIVATELY OWNED. I guess that is not how Fox spun it.
What does Fox have to do with any of this? The railroad is state-owned and it is being sold, supposedly to Russian interests, and no doubt because the government of Greece needs the money and cannot afford to own it any more.
John Timm
Well there goes inexpensive public rail transit in Greece, say goodbye to all the DMUs on the rural lines, soon to be replaced by buses or simply eliminated without any other alternate, and that which survives will get pricey very quickly.
The same thing happened in Britain when they “privatized”. A nation that once had one of the most extensive rural rail networks in Europe today now relies on cars to get anywhere away from the major cities and the service that remains is iffy at best and tickets are not cheap.
Who needs it? They got rid of the Tithorea steam locomotive storage yard a long time ago. All those goodies, GONE!
I am told that Greece you can get to most major places by pubic ferrrys
Pubic? Tithorea? I was told this was a family-friendly site…
Well, Tithorea WAS a real place, it’s been pictured in a number of Colin Garrett steam books. "Pubic ferrys’? Can’t account for that one.