Hellenic Railways Organisation
Greek railway infrastructure company
The Hellenic Railways Organisation or OSE (Greek: Οργανισμός Σιδηροδρόμων Ελλάδος, romanized: Organismos Sidirodromon Ellados or Greek: Ο.Σ.Ε.) was the Greek national railway company which owned, maintained and operated all railway infrastructure in Greece with the exception of Athens' rapid transit lines from 1971 to 2025. Services on these lines are run by Hellenic Train, a former OSE subsidiary, Rail Cargo Logistics Goldair, Pearl and Grup Feroviar Român.
History
Hellenis Railways Organisation was founded on 1 January 1971, with the Legislative Decree 674/1970, taking over the responsibilities as the successor to the Hellenic State Railways which had been founded in 1920. OSE is owned 100% by the Greek State. In 1996 ERGOSE was created within OSE to facilitate infrastructure projects. In 1999 The first section of the electrified line between Thessaloniki and Eidomeni is opened. Power is provided by an Overhead Contract System with 25 kV AC, 50 Hz.
In 2001, the infrastructure element of OSE was created, known as GAIAOSE. It would henceforth be responsible for the maintenance of stations, bridges and other elements of the network, as well as the leasing and sale of railway assists. In 2003, OSE launched "Proastiakos SA", as a subsidiary to serve the operation of the suburban network in the urban complex of Athens during the 2004 Olympic Games. In 2005, TrainOSE was created as a brand within OSE to concentrate on rail services and passenger interface.
The public source identifies “Hellenic Railways Organisation” as greek railway infrastructure company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hellenic, Railways and Organisation.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q602935. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 2025, 1970 and 1920.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hellenic Railways Organisation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.