‘Serious breaches’ of safety on Greek railways condemned

Greece’s railway regulator denounced this Friday, two weeks after a train collision in the country that killed 57 people, “serious shortcomings” in the safety of the rail network, in particular the “inadequate” training of personnel such as stationmasters.

According to the first conclusions of this body, “the training of personnel by the EfE [companhia ferroviária grega que gere a rede ferroviária] was incomplete and therefore inadequate”, in particular the station managers.

Thus, the Hellenic Railways Regulatory Authority (RAS) considered that it was “impossible to prove” that “the personnel of the transport sector, including the stationmaster involved in the accident, had ‘undertaken’ theoretical and practical training.

However, he stressed, these deficiencies pose an “immediate and serious” threat to the safety of passengers traveling by train.

As a result of a head-on collision of a passenger train with a freight train on the night of February 28 in Tempe, near the city of Larisa (center), 57 people were killed, including many young people.

The 59-year-old Larissa station chief, described by the local press as inexperienced, was detained five days after the collision after claiming responsibility for the accident.

Before colliding head-on, the two trains traveled several kilometers on the same track without signaling.

The head of the station is accused, in particular, of “murder by negligence.”

In addition to this responsibility of the stationmaster, the dilapidated state of the railway network, delays in the modernization of signaling and security systems were pointed out to explain the railway accident that caused a wave of outrage in Greece.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged the government’s responsibility and promised a “full” investigation into the causes of this “national tragedy”, the biggest railway accident in Greece in recent years.