1.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
2.
Hellenic Railways Organisation
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Train services on these lines are run by TrainOSE S. A. a former OSE subsidiary. In addition OSE owns and maintains the stock used by TrainOSE and maintains preserved special rolling stock, withdrawn locomotives. OSE was founded in 1971, taking over from the Hellenic State Railways, up until November 2010, company EDISY S. A. was the actual manager of the Greek national railway infrastructure until it became a subsidiary of OSE. Specifically on 29 November 2010 EDISY S. A. was merged back into the parent company OSE S. A. which is today the manager of the infrastructure of Greece. Almost all other lines link directly with two lines. The main line of the Greek Railway System from Athens to Thessaloniki, according to the 2007 Network Statement, the total length of the standard gauge lines was approximately 1,665 kilometres, while the length of the metre gauge lines is about 725 km. In addition, about 150 km of new standard gauge lines towards Athens Airport and to metre gauge lines. Piraeus is served by two terminals, one at Piraeus Harbour, which up until 2006 was used by some standard gauge trains for Chalkis, Thessaloniki, and Alexandroupolis. The short line to Agios Ioannis Rentis is closed and as of 2009 being renovated, the heavy rolling stock repair works are located at Lefka, next to Ergostasio halt, and are accessible from this line. The two lines from Piraeus meet just outside Agios Ioannis Rentis marshalling yard, next to the marshalling yard lies the major rolling stock depot and maintenance facility of OSE. North of AIR, the line crosses Kifissos River and then passes through the freight, at a siding of Rouf station, there is a railway theater in disused rolling stock and a disused SEK class Μα 2-10-2 steam locomotive made by Breda. The line between Rouf and Athens Central is single track and non-electrified, in 1916 the railway from Athens to Platy was completed, linking Athens with the European railway network. The line passes through Thebes and Larissa, and offers connections to other cities through branch lines. At Platy the line joins with the line from Thessaloniki to Amyntaio, Kozani, the line continues across flatland until the suburbs of Thessaloniki are reached at Sindos. Larissa and Thessaloniki have substantial marshalling yards for both goods and passenger trains, there are daily InterCity trains from Athens to Thessaloniki and one night train. The InterCity rail service usually takes 5 hours and 23 minutes, the new Corinth line branches off at SKA and runs west into Elefsis and the Megara Plains. The line passes through tunnels and bridges in the Kakia Skala area, north of Agioi Theodoroi, while crossing the Corinth Canal over a new bridge. Currently, the line extends to the town of Kiato, where passengers can change to a TrainOSE bus services to Patras or to the gauge network
3.
Line 2 (Athens Metro)
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Line 2 of the Athens Metro runs entirely underground from Anthoupoli in the northwest to Elliniko in the south, via Syntagma. It first opened, between Sepolia and Syntagma, on 28 January 2000, with Line 3, on 6 April 2013, Line 2 was extended to Anthoupoli in the north west, and on 26 July 2013 to Elliniko to the south. There are no currently extensions under construction, the New Regulatory Plan for Athens and Attica Prefecture envisages that Line 2 will eventually run from Ano Liosia to Glyfada
4.
Athens Metro
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The Athens Metro is a rapid-transit system in Greece which serves the Athens conurbation and parts of East Attica. It incorporates the former Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways, which opened as a steam railway in 1869. Beginning in 1991, Attiko Metro constructed and extended Lines 2 and 3, the metro network merged in 2011 when the Greek government created the Urban Rail Transport Company, a subsidiary of the Athens Urban Transport Organisation. First Chairman and CEO of the company became Kostas Vassiliadis. The system is noted for being modern and efficient, in its own right and it has drastically changed Athens by providing a much-needed solution to the citys traffic and air pollution problem, as well as revitalising many of the areas it serves. An extension of Line 3 is under construction towards Piraeus and also extensions of existing lines. The Athens Metro is actively connected with the means of public transport, such as buses, trolleys, the Athens Tram. The Athens Metro is hailed for its modernity and many of its stations feature works of art, exhibitions, until 28 January 2000, Line 1 was the only rapid-transit line in Athens and Piraeus. The Athens and Piraeus Railway Company opened the line on 27 February 1869 as a railway between Piraeus and Thiseio. It was electrified in 1904, and extended in stages to Kifisia in 1957, from 1976 to 16 June 2011, the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway Company operated Line 1 independently from the rest of the metro and tram networks. Unlike Lines 2 and 3, it runs almost entirely above ground, since the current Line 1 opened the government has proposed many expansions to the subway network, including a 1963 plan for a fourteen-line subway network. Construction of Lines 2 and 3 began in November 1992 to decrease traffic congestion, Lines 2 and 3, built by Attiko Metro and operated until 2011 by Attiko Metro Operations Company, are known respectively as the red and blue lines and were inaugurated in January 2000. Line 3 was extended to the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in summer 2004, the Greek government attempted to absorb ISAP into Attiko Metro under Law 2669/1998 so the latter would be responsible for the whole network, but this initiative failed. Athens Metro operations were consolidated when the Greek government enacted Law 3920/2011, replacing AMEL, ISAP and Athens Tram with Urban Rail Transport, the modern incarnation of Line 1 is 25. 6-kilometre long, and serves 24 stations. Together, Lines 2 and 3 are 58. 9-kilometre long, the three-line Athens Metro network serves 61 stations. It owns and operates 57 of them, and OSE owns the remainder on the airport section, the network has four metro interchanges, enabling the lines to interchange with each other at least once. Line 2 and the Attiko Metro portion of Line 3 is entirely underground, Line 1 is primarily in the open, with a tunnel section in central Athens. The airport section of Line 3, east of the tunnel portal near Doukissis Plakentias, is open, in the tunnel sections up and down lines share a common tunnel, except for approaches to stations with an island platform
5.
Athens International Airport
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It is Greeces busiest airport and it serves as the hub and main base of Aegean Airlines as well as other Greek airlines. The airport is currently in Group 2 of Airports Council International and as of 2016, AIA is located between the towns of Markopoulo, Koropi, Spata and Loutsa, about 20 km to the east of central Athens. As to-date, ownership is divided between the Hellenic Republic and Private Sector in a 55%-45% stake following a PPP scheme for the airport company, currently, private investors include the Copelouzos Group and PSP Investments of Canada, following purchase of Hochtiefs shares. The airport was constructed to replace the now-closed Athens International Airport, studies for a new airport had been carried out from as early as the 1970s, with as many as 19 different locations being looked at before an area close to the town of Spata was chosen as suitable. Athens Airport SA, a company, was established in 1978 to proceed with the plans. In 1996, Athens International Airport S. A. was established as a Public–private partnership with a 30-year concession agreement and that same year, the €2.1 billion development finally began with an estimated completion date of February 2001. The airport construction was completed five months before schedule, but was delayed opening a month due to connections to Attiki Odos not being completed. Its major features include two parallel runways being 4 km and 3.8 km long respectively, the airport has received approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration for take-offs and landings of the biggest passenger jet worldwide, the A380. The first ever A380 to visit Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport made a landing on 13 April 2011 for emergency medical reasons. The first scheduled A380 flight took place on 26 October 2012 by Emirates, the Greek government-debt crisis reduced the overall passenger traffic of the airport for six consecutive years. Many long-haul airlines outright terminated service to the airport, while others chose to operate on a basis only. Moreover, these problems were exacerbated by the closure of Olympic Airlines. In 2013, the airport handled just above 12.5 million passengers,3. 2% fewer than in 2012,2014 signaled a strong recovery for the airports passenger traffic and all statistical figures. More than ten new airlines started new flights to and from Athens, Aegean Airlines strengthened its network by 30% while Ryanair established a new base in the Athens Airport and added eight destinations. Characteristically, Singapore and Gulf Air resumed flights while Emirates, Etihad Airways, delta Air Lines and American Airlines retained their seasonal schedules to/from USA with even more frequent connectivity. From 2017 onwards, year-round services to Singapore are going to resume after more than 5 years, flights are going to be opeated by Scoot. In addition, over the period, aircraft traffic exhibited a solid growth of 14% year-over-year. Strong growth was evident throughout 2016, both for domestic and international destinations, annual results reflect a solid performance having an all-time record high been achieved for a second year in a row fueled by double-digit growth, this time passing the twenty million mark
6.
Peloponnese
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The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
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Larissa
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Larissa is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region, the fifth most populous in Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is an agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos. Larissa, within its municipality, has 162,591 inhabitants, legend has it that Achilles was born here, and that Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, died here. Today, Larissa is a commercial and industrial centre in Greece. The region is linked to the rest of Europe through the International Airport of Central Greece located in Nea Anchialos a short distance from Larissa. Larissa lies on the river Pineios, the municipality Larissa has an area of 335.98 km2, the municipal unit Larissa has an area of 122.586 km2, and the community Larissa has an area of 88.167 km2. The Larissa Chasma, a gash in the surface of Dione. The climate of Larissa is transitional, the winter is cold and wet, and some snowstorms may occur. The summer is hot, and temperatures of 40 °C may occur, thunderstorms or heavy rain may cause agricultural damage. Larissa receives 450 mm of rain per year, according to Greek mythology it is said that the city was founded by Acrisius, who was killed accidentally by his grandson, Perseus. There lived Peleus, the hero beloved by the gods, in mythology, the nymph Larissa was a daughter of the primordial man Pelasgus. In this paragraph, Homer shows that the Pelasgians, Trojan allies and it is likely that this city of Larissa was different to the city that was the birthplace of Achilles. The Larissa that features as a Trojan ally in the Iliad was likely to be located in the Troad, traces of Paleolithic human settlement have been recovered from the area, but it was peripheral to areas of advanced culture. The area around Larissa was extremely fruitful, it was agriculturally important, the name Larissa is in origin a Pelasgian word for fortress. There were many ancient Greek cities with this name, the name of Thessalian Larissa is first recorded in connection with the aristocratic Aleuadai family. Larissa is thought to be where the famous Greek physician Hippocrates, when Larissa ceased minting the federal coins it shared with other Thessalian towns and adopted its own coinage in the late 5th century BC, it chose local types for its coins. The obverse depicted the nymph of the spring, Larissa, for whom the town was named. The reverse depicted a horse in various poses, the horse was an appropriate symbol of Thessaly, a land of plains, which was well known for its horses
8.
Piraeus
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Piraeus is a port city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens urban area,12 kilometres southwest from its city center, the municipality of Piraeus and several other suburban municipalities within the regional unit of Piraeus form the greater Piraeus area, with a total population of 448,997. Piraeus has a recorded history, dating to ancient Greece. During the Golden Age of Athens the Long Walls were constructed to connect Athens with Piraeus, the port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the second largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a throughput of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe, the city hosted events in both the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The University of Piraeus is one of the largest universities in Greece, Piraeus, which roughly means the place over the passage, has been inhabited since the 26th century BC. Consequently, it was called the Halipedon, meaning the salt field, through the centuries, the area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, and thus by early classical times the land passage was made safe. In the late 6th century BC, the area caught attention due to its advantages, in 511 BC, the hill of Munichia was fortified by Hippias and four years later Piraeus became a deme of Attica by Cleisthenes. The Athenian fleet played a role in the battle of Salamis against the Persians in 480 BC. From then on Piraeus was permanently used as the navy base, the citys fortification was farther reinforced later by the construction of the Long Walls under Cimon and Pericles, with which Piraeus was connected to Athens. Meanwhile, Piraeus was rebuilt to the grid plan of architect Hippodamus of Miletus, known as the Hippodamian plan. As a result, Piraeus flourished and became a port of high security and great commercial activity, during the Peloponnesian War, Piraeus suffered its first setback. In the second year of the war, the first cases of the Athens plague were recorded in Piraeus, in 404 BC, the Spartan fleet under Lysander blockaded Piraeus and subsequently Athens surrendered to the Spartans, putting an end to the Delian League and the war itself. As a result, the tattered and unfortified port city was not able to compete with prosperous Rhodes, the destruction was completed in 395 AD by the Goths under Alaric I. Piraeus was led to a period of decline which lasted for fifteen centuries. During the Byzantine period the harbour of Piraeus was occasionally used for the Byzantine fleet and it was also called Porto Drako by Greeks, drako meaning not just dragon, but any monster. When Piraeus was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1456, it known as Aslan Liman. The Piraeus Lion itself was looted in 1687 by Francesco Morosini during his expedition against Athens and was carried to the Venetian Arsenal, a copy of the lion statue is on display at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus
9.
Station building
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A station building, also known as a head house, is the main building of a passenger railway station. It is typically used principally to provide services to passengers, a station building is not to be confused with the station itself. Whereas the latter is the whole facility giving passenger access to trains at a particular location, normally, a station building will be of adequate size for the type of service that is to be performed. It may range from a simple building with limited services to passengers to a large building with many indoor spaces providing many services. Some station buildings are of monumental proportions and styles, both in the past and in recent times, especially when constructed for a modern high-speed rail network, a station building may even be a true masterpiece of architecture. A typical railway station building will have an entrance hall off the road or square where the station is located. Near the entrance will be a counter, ticket machines. There will also be one or more waiting rooms, often divided by class, from the waiting rooms, there will usually be direct access to rail passenger services. Medium to large size station buildings will also have offices for rail staff involved in the management. Smaller or more stations will have no station building at all. Several decades were needed to find a formula for station building architecture that, like churches and town halls, the first station buildings gave no special emphasis to their function, being essentially a variation on the house or office building. Often the earliest station buildings were so modest that the visible element of the station was the train shed. Some early station building design teams tried to develop representative characteristics, initially, this was by use of traditional architectural symbols, primarily related to the form of a gate, such as a portico, a triumphal arch or Propylaea. But none of them have proved to be suitable for expression of specific railway station functions. One of the ideas was to form the station building porticos to highlight the driveway. This motif is present in the Newcastle Central station building. It became a more prominent motif in the twentieth century. In British railway stations, where - thanks to constant movement of trains - the exchange of passengers takes place rapidly, to some extent, the railway hotel buildings serve part of the stations function
10.
Goods station
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This often takes the form of a container terminal and may also be known as a container station. Goods stations were more widespread in the days when the railways were common carriers and were converted from former passenger station whose traffic had moved elsewhere. The worlds first dedicated goods terminal was the 1830 Park Lane Goods Station at the South End Liverpool Docks, built in 1830 the terminal was reached by a 1. 24-mile tunnel from Edge Hill in the east of the city. The station was a part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, where individual goods wagons are dispatched to specific goods stations, they are usually delivered to special shunting stations or marshalling yards where they are sorted and then collected. Sometimes there are combined shunting and goods stations, a goods station is usually equipped with a large number of storage and loading sidings in order to fulfil its task. On the loading sidings there may be fixed facilities, such as cranes or conveyor belts, or temporary equipment, stations where the primary purpose of the station is the handling of containers are also known as container terminals. They are equipped with cranes and fork-lift vehicles for loading containers from lorries or ships onto the railway vehicles. If only a section of a station is used for the loading and unloading of goods, it may be referred to as the loading area or loading dock and has its own access. Often there are no facilities for loading and the firm has to organise its own loading equipment such as conveyor belts or lorry cranes. Such loading areas were mainly to be found on branch lines, narrow gauge railways, in many European countries they are also equipped with a hump yard. In combined goods and hub stations with a yard, the latter was closed if the station lost its role as a railway hub. As a result, most of the remaining goods stations today are just used as container or transshipment stations, in French, gare aux marchandises or gare de fret. Freight yard Goods shed Goods train Railway station, which information on passenger stations. Container terminal Blum, Otto, Personen- und Güterbahnhöfe, kurt Leibrand, Handbuch für Bauingenieurwesen, Berlin/Göttingen/Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag. Bände 1 und 2, East Berlin, Transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrswesen, europe-wide goods station search Goods stations search - Germany Container services
11.
Attica
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Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
12.
InterCity
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InterCity is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains generally call at stations only. The Inter-City Rapid Transit Company was an Ohio interurban company, which operations in 1930 as it had purchased its route from the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company. It remained in operation till 1940, the use of Inter-City was reborn in the United Kingdom, A daily train of that name was introduced in 1950, running between the cities of London and Birmingham. This usage can claim to be the origin of all later usages worldwide, in 1966 British Rail introduced the brand InterCity for all of its express train routes, and in 1986 the term was adopted by the InterCity sector of British Rail. Following the privatisation of the railways in Great Britain the term is no longer in use there. The brand still exists though, and according to DfT is owned by them, in West Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn first used the name in 1968, denoting special first-class services on the F-Zug train network. Many of the Class VT11.5 diesel multiple units used on the TEE network were converted for early Intercity services. In Switzerland, the InterCity brand replaced SwissExpress in the 1982 schedule, in Norway, intercity trains were introduced in 1975 on the Vestfold Line, later also on the Østfold Line. They were fast trains on distances up to 2–3 hours. Today, the name is used not on the trains, but on the lines from Oslo to Skien, Lillehammer, and Halden – and also on the Ringerike Line. An international variant of the InterCity are the EuroCity trains which were introduced in May 1987, EuroCity trains consist of high-standard, Air conditioned coaches and are usually subject to on-board border controls. The Austrian Federal Railways have operated IC services since 1991, modernised stock of Eurofima coaches is used under the brand name ÖBB-InterCity mainly on the Austrian Western and Southern Railways from Vienna to Salzburg and Villach. The ÖBB also deployed electric multiple unit trains, from 2006 also three ICE T trainsets in cooperation with the Deutsche Bahn, currently running from Vienna to Frankfurt via Linz, ÖBB high-speed rail service is provided by Railjet trains. Since 2011, there is an express train service on the Western Railway operated by WESTbahn. Klagenfurt–Villach–Bischofshofen–Salzburg Salzburg-Tyrol Railway and Lower Inn Valley Railway Salzburg–Wörgl–Innsbruck Arlberg railway Innsbruck–Bregenz, the InterCity service from Vienna to Salzburg is going to be expanded for an hourly service to Landeck via Innsbruck by December 2008. Also, the service from Vienna to Graz is going to operate hourly by December 2008, some of them serve also destinations outside the country. The IC between Liège and Brussels travels at 200 km/h on the HSL2, InterCity trains in Croatia mainly serve domestic routes from Zagreb to Split and from Zagreb to Osijek except one international train connecting Zagreb and Vinkovci