“The intention of the government and the almost complete consent of the workers is the immediate restart of the railway. A disabled railroad is actually destructive to the environment itself, not because of theft, but because it is discredited in the minds of citizens. I’ll take the train myself.”

Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister of State, who is also responsible for infrastructure and transport, made this statement during his first appointment to Committee on Institutions and Transparency on the progress and development of work 717 of the agreement on telecontrol – signaling of railways and the safety of railway transport.

G. Gerapetritis, following the positions of the former and former Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, noted that “there should be no gaps and question marks in this discussion, because citizens want to know what has happened and what will happen in the future.” . He noted that “on most of the points mentioned by the former Minister Christos Spircis, in terms of objective data and problem diagnosis, we agree.” “However, we disagree on implementation, how much of the project was implemented by the previous government, and what the downtime is between successive governments,” he added.

The Minister of State emphasized that “the purpose of today’s meeting is not to highlight criminal liability, but to highlight political omissions that are directly or indirectly related to the tragic incident”, and pointed out three points:

• The question of completing the electronic modernization of security systems. Intercom and brake systems and their equipment.

• What worked and works at Larisa station.

• Lack of personnel in the OSS.

In particular, regarding the system for completing the electronic security upgrades, Mr. Gerapetritis emphasized that “a lot has been said. The reality is that Contract 717, dated September 2014, was for two years. Only a small part was delivered in 2016. Of the 17 stations, half of the stations were in need of repair after the new SI government came to power, as very serious gaps in infrastructure interoperability were found. In 2016, a very small part of the project was implemented. It is not clear from anywhere that the project continued in 2017,” and called on SYRIZA to submit documents on the adoption of functional documents.

As for the intercom, he said the system was indeed delivered in 2019, but had to go through a lengthy evaluation and certification process, which was not part of the original contract. According to him, the certification is completed, and he received the approval of the Russian Academy of Sciences for track equipment, that is, for equipment located on tracks and rails, and equipment located inside trains is under consideration. Today, station chiefs communicate through the GRMAR system, however, according to the minister, the communication system with the drivers is preserved.

Regarding the automatic braking system, the minister noted that “of course, it exists in many EU countries, but we said that only in two or three countries it works at the level of 100% of their network. Greece will be the fourth country to have it in the entire country network and this will be a very important upgrade.”

Regarding the schedule, he emphasized that “there will be a very significant acceleration of the electronic systems delivery project, and we will use 100% at the end of September 2023. From October 2023, all alarm and remote control systems will be installed and operational.”

Regarding what was working at Larisa station, Mr. Gerapetritis said that currently there is a local remote control center that can perform automatic marking, and station managers are required to do automatic marking. “Of course, this is really a local remote control system, not a universal one. When the rest of the points are received, we will have hyperlocal centers that will be able to control more stations. However, today, as we speak, we have the local center of Larisa, which, for about 5.5 km north of Larisa and 3 km south of Larisa, makes automatic markings.”

The Minister spoke of “the absurd behavior of deliberate deceit, when some go to the Center, where he is currently working, and in September it will become a supra-local operation, and show – which today is under construction due to work – that supposedly the station does not have a local remote control networks. He pointed out that “the local remote control system was working on the day of the accident and is still working today” and suggested that “the coalition and opposition go together to the Larissa station to see if the local markings are working or not.” .

He also presented an official analysis of the Larisa Center’s electronic signaling log file on that decisive night. From this it follows that “up to 10:12 on all routes (which are detailed) five automatic markings were carried out and, unfortunately, the 62nd train was laid manually. Well, on that critical night, the local system was at full capacity and the automatic layout had to be done.”

G. Gerapetritis stressed that the current government has made great efforts to replenish the staff of the OGE at the expense of losses incurred in connection with retirement. He acknowledged that “the staff was not enough, but it is clear, despite this, that 200 people were hired with a service certificate, of which 57 were station chiefs and 13 mechanics who had passed the established training. And the recruitment of 117 people, of which 36 are station chiefs, is in the process of being developed, and another announcement of another 100 people is just around the corner.

Legislation will be introduced that will speed up the process of hiring 100 workers as it will be done from the existing roster so that a total of 217 people will now be hired, the contracts of over 400 people who work with DPY will be extended and we are considering reinstatement of security guards whose employment contract has expired. Well, let’s immediately strengthen with experienced personnel all the critical positions that we have in the EfE.

However, Mr. Gerapteritis also raised some questions:

1. When was the 4th EU Rail Safety Package integrated into the Greek legal order? According to him, this was done by the government of North Dakota.

2. “This week we will introduce a provision that will make the theft of railway equipment and receiving stolen goods a universal criminal offence. This provision, punishing these offenses as a serious crime, existed before the change in the Criminal Code made by the government of SYRIZA,” he said.

3. “What 72% of the remote control worked, as Mr. Speartzes told us?” Where are the receipts? Can you provide them for us? Not the payments that you made, but the protocols of operational receipts, ”he continued.

4. The minister stressed that during the period of the previous government, in four and a half years, and with the reduction of the staff of the EfE, 24 recruitments were carried out, that is, five recruitments per year.

5. “From 2016, when Mr. Spirtzis discovered contract 717 was bad, what happened until 2019? And why are we renewing a bad contract six times? There’s a reason,” he asked.

Source: RES-IPE