Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, February 28, a passenger train on the night route Athens – Thessaloniki, faces head-on with a commercial train in the area of Pace. 350 half-asleep passengers, many of whom are students, wake up from sudden braking and a deafening sound of impact. Soon the first carriages are on fire. Some manage to get out of the derailed wires by breaking windows. There is panic.

ten dreadful seconds

“In the beginning there was a delay of 20 minutes to half an hour. The driver then informs us of an hour delay […] says that there is confusion in the lines. We hear two girls – I don’t know the names of the assistants – say: where is the boss? Returned? And in a minute boom, ”said one of the survivors, who was sitting in the fourth car. “It was a nightmare 10 seconds, with fires”.

Another passenger reports that upon arrival in Thessaloniki, when the train stopped late at Paleofarsalo, he heard the conductor say to the cashier: “let’s go anywhere”. When asked what was the reason for the delay, the young man replied that they were delayed due to heavy traffic on the lines.

Commenting on this statement, Mr. former President of the Panhellenic Federation of Railways and General Secretary of the GSEE Nikolaos Kioutsoukis said the colleagues were probably referring to the cut power cable, which could bring the train to a halt. “The expression probably referred to whether there would be electricity to run the train,” he noted.

Defunct systems

Apologizing, the head of the station, the only one so far arrested, at first admitted his tragic mistake and explained it as “untimely”, and a criminal case was initiated against him for serious crimes. However, according to complaints that have been published since Wednesday morning, trade unionists and rail experts allege that human error could have been avoided.

remote control and light signaling systems they don’t work, not in exceptional cases, but because of chronic delays in security updates. OUR Chairman of the Railway Regulation Authority Ioanna Tepariku, told K about “contracts that had to be executed” and added: “Currently, the system is in manual mode, so there is a risk of human error.” Constant remarks about the absence of a remote control system are reflected in the “Annual Safety Reports” of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2014, a contract was signed to upgrade signaling and remote control systems in parts of the Athens-Thessaloniki Axis, with an initial cost of €41 million at the time of the award, which subsequently increased dramatically, exceeding 50% of the original budget. and holding ERGOSE, following an audit by the Financial Control Committee in 2018, liable for mismanagement.

“The contract went through fire and iron”

“The contract for the restructuring and modernization of the telecontrol-signaling system has gone through fire and iron,” sources at the Ministry of Transport say, referring to the “chronic railway problem in Greece.”

“There was never a downgrade,” he adds. representative of TRAINOSE employees, Vasilis Zavoyannis and explains to K that the security systems that were integrated around 2004 were never put into operation. According to the project schedule, upgrades and systems upgrades were to be completed by 2020, but only the section from Plati Imatia to Promakhona, ready today. At the site of the tragic accident, procedures remained outdated.

Human factor

“Mismanagement of the human factor in a process that has been the same for too many years,” Department of Transportation sources say of the causes of the head-on collision of trains, pointing to the station master responsible for the “invisibility”. while recognizing that with upgraded systems, the accident could have been avoided.

“Now they have cornered the head of the station, a 59-year-old man. He was the head of the station for only 40 days, and he was put at the most difficult joint, ”Mr. Zavoyannis tells K, referring to the problems of staffing responsible security posts. However, according to ministry sources, stationmasters go through 712 hours of mandatory training and 75 days of practice before taking office. “So the experience was there, and that wasn’t the hardest part.”

Contracts and projects in progress

Former president of the Panhellenic Federation of Railways and Secretary General of the GSEE, Nikolaos Kioutsoukis, for his part, “demonstrates” inoperability GSM-R systemwhich this will allow the stationmaster to see where the train is. According to him, the system has been purchased since 2000. But conflicts between contractors, protracted resolution of disputes in the courts and improper treatment have led to the fact that the system still does not work.

“If something had happened then, we would not mourn so many dead today”

He doesn’t exist either traffic light coordinating systemcomplains Mr. Kioutsoukis.

When asked by “K” about the causes of the accident that occurred in Adendros in 2017, Mr. Kioutsoukis again “revealed” the absence of these intelligent systems. “If something had happened then, we would not mourn so many dead today”

Graphics: Pavlos Methodius

Sources at OSE tell K that these systems were to be built under contracts by ERGOSE, which then supplied them to OSE.

“The systems were not built in full. They can be built in separate parts, but they cannot function as a whole. The construction of the systems is “split” into several contracts, as a result of which the projects are not completed. In the same way, responsibilities become more difficult.emphasize the same sources.

“Investigators have not yet been called”

In the latest Safety Report (2021), the RAS notes, on the one hand, the absence of the Air and Railway Accident Investigation Committee, which is provided for by Law No. 4313 of 2014. In January 2023, Law No. 5014 National Aviation and Rail Transportation Air Accident Investigation, which is still “understaffed,” according to Ms. Teparikou.

ABOUT President of the National Organization for the Investigation of Aviation and Railway Accidents and Transportation Safety (EODASAAM) Ioannis Kondylis, stressed that the organization is not currently dealing with this issue, because there are no train investigators. “We have aircraft investigators here in the office, they don’t have train investigators. They haven’t called yet,” he said.