by November 2023. Both lines are designed to serve a minimum of 18,000 passengers per hour in each direction, with a 90-second headway. The completed metro will reduce Thessaloniki's greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 5,000 tons a year, and reduce travel time by up to 66 percent. Network Line 1 (Base Project) What is known as the Base Project () began in 2003, when Attiko Metro and the Greek government agreed to cooperate on a public works project Government support was instrumental, since lack of government support for the 1988 proposal was the primary reason it had failed. The project issued a request for tender in 20042005, and the successful Greco-Italian consortium (which included AnsaldoBreda) began construction in late June 2006. An alternate consortium, Macedonian Metro (), was barred by the European Court of Justice from participating in the tender because it changed its composition after the tender proceedings began (violating EU law). The project was budgeted at €1.05 billion ($ billion), with 25 percent funding from the Greek government and 75 percent funded by loans from the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund. The latest available Attiko Metro financial data put the official estimated cost at €1.28 billion ($ billion). An April 2019 update raised the estimated cost to €1.62 billion ($ billion). Line 1 runs within the municipality of Thessaloniki, the core of the Thessaloniki urban area, calling at 13 stations. It has two parallel single-track tunnels on a route between (N. Sid. Stathmos, at the city's New Railway Station) and , with further southeast. Although construction began in 2006, major archaeological finds in the city centre delayed the project considerably. Disputes between Attiko Metro, the city council, and archaeologists reached Greece's Council of State, the country's highest administrative court, in 2015. The original schedule had Line 1 operational by 2012. Attiko Metro redesigned several stations in a solution which became known as "antiquities and metro" (). Some finds discovered on the line will be put on display at permanent in-station exhibitions, while the major discoveries at will make up the world's first publicly-accessible open-air archaeological site contained in situ within a metro station. Construction of the tunnels was completed on 31 July 2018, 12 years and one month after breaking ground. That day, the architectural work on Line 1 was reported as 80 percent finished. In August 2018, tracks and electronic signalling equipment