The Tempe disaster and dozens of lives led to an unprecedented maze of mistakes and bad decisions at all levels over the course of several years. OUR “K” spoke to Christos Retsinaformer Director of Train and Traffic Safety TRAINOSE to shed light on various aspects of the events leading up to the tragedy.

– In the case we are discussing, there is an error from OSE. He was understaffed and asked the transferees to return. But, as a rule, the OSE should return those who were the head of the station. He gets back a specialty (porter) that is obsolete and needs to be put somewhere. He sends him to stationmaster school and makes him a stationmaster. And this puts him – another mistake – in the most critical position.

– OSE. I don’t know by what criteria, maybe by location or political reasons.

– Recently, they have a six-month training, but during training you go for theoretical training, and then you do practice. He completed an internship as a second and, having little experience, he was placed in Larisa. But it’s not just about experience. On audio, the locksmith asks him, “Should I turn the key?” Since the keys are electric and controlled from the station master’s console, what is the job of a locksmith? Why is he asking? Where is the stationmaster?

The stationmaster also orders the driver to leave, but he does not say “you leave the line uphill”, but implies that he leaves the line uphill towards Neos Poros, towards Thessaloniki, when he gives him the order. Leave. The driver should have seen that he would have to go up the descent line, stop, slow down the train and ask the stationmaster: “Why are you sending me off the descent line?” and announce on the radio that he has taken the line of descent, so that the commercial train can hear him. The head of the station “New Resources” notified the station “Larisa” 17 minutes before the accident, that is, that the commercial train was going down. This means that the train driver also did not work properly.

– All trains have radiotelephones and all communications are tapped.

He did not hear the order between the locksmith and the stationmaster. He heard the captain’s order to the driver, but the descending train did not know that the captain was putting another train on the tracks. If the driver of Intercity 62 (passenger) announced that he had taken the line of descent, the rest would have heard this and stopped. So we need to clarify whether the head of the station was in his place.

– They are investigated by the commission. From the recorded messages, I can see that something is wrong.

“In the audio document, the locksmith asks, ‘Turn the key?’ Since the keys are electric and controlled from the stationmaster’s console, why does he ask? Where is the head of the station?” says Christos Retsinas “K”.

The train stops for about a minute. But I want to emphasize something else: since the end of 2020, when TRAINOSE (Hellenic Train) left the OSE office, it also took the employees who were in the competent authority to the “Traffic Monitoring Center”, which had an experienced driver, supervisor and head of the road staff , who, together with the head of the OOS station, controlled the movement of all trains. This committee stopped working from the end of 2020 because TRAINOSE (Hellenic Train) decided to build their own train monitoring system. What he did was install GPS on the cars, but from a security point of view, this does nothing. It shows you a point, i.e. the train is moving from Thebes to Livadia, but does not show which line it is on.

“They talked on the radio and mobile phones with the drivers and train leaders, and the driver informed, as well as the train leader, where each train was. We’ve had too many accidents. This was necessary because there is no STsB-DU, except for the section Tiforea – Domokos – Larisa.

– Until 2012, he worked, but especially in the Larisa section and up to Katerini, theft of materials and sabotage began. There are gangs that steal cables and equipment.

– This should be answered by OSE. What exactly happens to the contracts, I don’t know, but the current contract regarding traffic safety, signaling and remote control, which also includes automatic braking of the train if the driver does not react, has not entered into force. has been completed. This project has reached Aliarto and is heading towards the Sphinx, and although the contractor was guarding the cables with security yesterday, the gang stole their cables. I point this out because the Intercity 62, which had an accident before arriving from Paleofarsalos in Larissa, was sent off the descent line. The riser line was out of service due to sabotage.

– In the past, there were quality sheets that evaluated you every year based on the points you received for physical and mental qualities. I don’t know what is there today.

– For people who are on the front line, except for the psychotechnical condition, which is checked during recruitment, no other check is then carried out. We wrote a letter to the security service of the Ministry of Transport, in which we suggested checking and re-examining train drivers every three years. We wrote this letter after the suicide of a Tripoli train driver. We even suggested creating a group of regulators.

“Of course, because if they stop circulating, the gangs will steal them all. The immediate action required is to oblige the ministry to re-establish a traffic oversight body. It only takes two days.