Buses and trolleys will operate on Thursday, May 1, from 09:00 to 21:00, while metro lines 2 & 3 will operate from 09:00 to 15:00. During these hours, metro routes to and from the airport will operate normally while ships and trains will not be operating due to strike.
HDN Newsroom
The Athens metro, buses and trolley buses, for their part, will operate a shorter service, running from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., while in Thessaloniki, the metro will run as usual but it will not be stopping at the Venizelos and Panepistimio stations while the marches are under way, for security reasons. Buses in the northern port city will not be operating at all, except for a handful of lines that provide services for the handicapped.
Unions and associations representing workers across every sector of the economy are taking to the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki and dozens of other Greek cities on Thursday to mark international Labor Day.
In downtown Athens, marches are being planned by Greece’s General Confederation of Labor (GSEE) and the Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY), among other unions, with protesters gathering at 10.30 a.m. and then converging in front of Parliament at Syntagma Square.
In Thessaloniki, unions will be gathering at the statue of Eleftherios Venizelos at 10.30 a.m., while several anti-establishment groups will be holding a parallel protest rally at the Arch of Gallerius.
Motorists are strongly advised to avoid the downtown area of both cities on Thursday morning as traffic will be brought to a standstill.
Marches are also being planned by labor unions in dozens of other cities, including Patra, Larissa, Kalamata, Ioannina, Iraklio on Crete, Zakynthos and Samos, to name a few.
The May 1 action will affect ferry and public transportation services, where workers are walking off the job in demand of better pay, collective bargaining, more hirings and better working conditions.
Due to the mass strike gatherings in downtown Athens, Syntagma and Panepistimiou metro stations will remain closed by order of the Hellenic Police and trains will pass through them without stopping.
Lines 2 & 3 the stations will open at 09:00 and the last trains will depart:
from Anthoupoli to Elliniko at 14:42,
from Elliniko to Anthoupoli at 14:37,
from Municipal Theater to D. Plakentias at 14:44,
from D. Plakentias to Municipal Theater at 14:36,
from Airport to Municipal Theater the first train will depart at 09:10 and the last at 13:58,
from Municipal Theater to Airport the first train will depart at 09:06 and the last at 13:54.
Line 1 Metro (Train) - Tram
The trains of Line 1 Metro "Kifisia Piraeus" and the Tram will be stopped throughout the day.
In the meantime, seamen are staging a 24-hour strike that is keeping ferry boats tied up at port all day, while service has also been halted on the country’s trains and suburban railway (Proastiakos).
