In article , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
That wording is slightly misleading - Athens has had an underground
metro for some years. I presume they're talking about extensions for
the Olympics.

The last time I used the Athens subway was a few years ago but it was an
interesting experience to see their response to a train failure.

The train suddenly stopped between stations and only the emergency
lights stayed on. After a couple of minutes there was an announcement,
the gist of which a kindly local translated for us. Then the doors
opened, and in a fairly orderly fashion we all jumped or slid or were
helped to the ground; then we all trooped along to the nearest station,
all without the appearance of a guard or any obvious member of staff.
Some lights were on in the tunnel, so the evacuation wasn't at all
difficult. The nearest station was only a couple of hundred meters away
and fortunately for us was the one we had been planning to alight at; so
we just walked up the sloping end of the platform and exited normally.

I couldn't help thinking that in London, with a similar technical
failure, we'd probably have been trapped for hours. As it was, everyone
used their common sense and we all got out with only a small delay, and
only a few grumbled complaints.

--
Clive Page