Three weeks ago there was a serious train accident in which 57 people died. The railway workers went on permanent strike. Initially, however, only freight trains and regional trains are on the move.
Three weeks after the serious train accident that killed 57 people, trains on Greek Railways returned to service on Wednesday. Initially, only freight trains and several regional trains were on the move in the Athens metropolitan area, in the port city of Patras and Thessaloniki, as announced by the Ministry of Transport. The suburban railway linking Athens to the capital’s airport is also back in operation, as shown by state television.
In an interview with Alpha TV station on Tuesday night, the Conservative head of government Kyriakos Mitsotakis again apologized for the accident and promised to modernize the ailing Greek railway. He will do everything to ensure that the causes of the accident are not covered up, he added.
Careful train reset
The government is very cautious about restarting the railway. Trains travel slowly on the routes because modern security and control systems barely worked or sometimes not at all. The first Intermunicipal on the route between Athens and Thessaloniki – where the accident also happened – should only run on April 1st.
Greek railway workers went on strike after the worst railway accident in the country’s history. They, like thousands of protesters who have protested nearly every day since then, demand a comprehensive investigation into the causes of the crash.
A stationmaster in the city of Larisa had sent the passenger train onto the wrong tracks. Then there was a head-on collision with a freight train. However, human error would have had no consequences if the electronics had worked. Ongoing investigations reveal details of the catastrophic state of the Greek railways almost every day.
(APA/dpa)