Kryoneri is a seaside settlement next to Varasova. Meleager left from here to join the Argonauts, and the Calydonians to fight in the Trojan War. But it was the arrival of the railway that truly transformed the fortunes of this community. In the late 1880s the government of Charilaos Trikoupis decided to finance the construction of a railway network in northwestern Greece. The purpose was to facilitate the movement of passengers and cargo in the valley of the Achelous River, with a possible extension to Epirus and Thessaly. His political opponents accused him of building the railroad for personal political gains, since Missolonghi was his constituency.