The President of SYRIZA PS held a meeting with railwaymen, Alexis Tsiprasin the engine room in Renty.

According to SYRIZA-PS, Al. Tsipras discussed the tragic accident at Tempi with workers, foremen and train drivers.

As noted, the chairman of the train drivers Kostas Genidunias, in the discussion, criticized the attempt to put all the blame on “human error” and referred to the repeated warnings that their union addressed to the administration and government about the risk of accidents due to “failure of traffic lights and remote control” and “the failure of the ETCS (European Traffic Control System)”, “whose operation protects against the possibility of human error”.

Especially for the ETCS system, Mr. Genidunias noted that “it started in March 2019 with a contract to start joining the network.”

“Since 2008, the network has been looted, these systems worked until then, the staff was halved. Since 2018, the network has been fixed, the Athens-Thessaloniki dual line has become available, and since March 2019, a contract for infrastructure systems has been in place. We were assured that they would be completed by 2020,” he said.

Regarding the untimely activation of security systems, Mr. Genidunias added that “in 2020, we started work with mobilizations, notified of delays, sent out-of-court letters to our company, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Labour, OSE and the regulator.”

He pointed out that “we sent the first court order in September 2021 because we were told that then the work would be completed, then we were told that it would be completed in five months. In February 2022, we again sent a court order, we were again told that in five months the work would be completed. From August to September 2022, there were three derailments. We sent an out-of-court letter again in October 2022 and the OSE told us that we were lying and serving the market.”

Al. Tsipras, for his part, stressed the need to “reveal the truth so that we can see and fight the causes of the accident.” To ensure the safety of both you, the workers and the passengers. And that this will never happen again.”

In the conversations he had with the workers, visibly moved, they remarked to the President of SYRIZA PS that “every day he was with the dead workers” on the train to Tempi, because, according to them, “we have traveled countless times.” routes together. They added that “due to the problems that Mr. Genidunias told you about, we are always afraid.”

“I came today to meet the people on the front lines here in Rentis. I came, first of all, to support their grief for the unjustly killed colleagues. But let me share their longing: for the whole truth to come to light, so that nothing is hidden, ”said Al. Tsipras after meeting with the railroad workers.

“It’s a fact that I witnessed what they told me is that they made repeated attempts to draw attention to the issue. They described to me a chronicle of a predicted tragedy, the causes of which cannot be hidden by any expediency,” he stressed. “And at this time of mourning, I can only say one thing: we are obliged to the people whom we have lost unfairly, to do everything in our power, everything in our power so that nothing and no one is left in the dark,” he said.

“Nothing and no one should be forgotten. No responsibility to hide. Only in this way will we fulfill our duty and never again experience such a tragedy.”