“In our conversations with each other, we knew something bad was going to happen someday, we just didn’t know the date, the place, and couldn’t appreciate the seriousness.” Mr. Andreas Bouras, President of the OSE Panhellenic Union of Stationmasters, himself a stationmaster with 28 years of experience, knows firsthand the gaps in railway operation and the dangers that lurk. The extensive complaints put forward by the Panhellenic Union in recent years have not gone unheeded. The high-ranking ones accused them of micropolitics, the lower ones got “sophistry” and interpreted the statutes at their own discretion.

Last May, a complaint was filed about an incident in Serra, at one of the ghost stations that does not have a station manager. On Monday, May 23, train 3634 declared immobility at Serres station, and instead of departing with a reserve engine and in accordance with the procedures stipulated by the General Rules of the Road, “a goods train from Alexandroupoli was ordered to go to the station of Serres, which was not working , and therefore it was impossible to arrange the shifts (keys) at the siding so that there was no collision of two trains (both went along the same track). As soon as it turned out that this was impossible and dangerous, the management ordered the track officer to go to the Serres station with the key and without the presence of the station master in order to organize the transfer and movement of trains, but both the track officer and the caretaker found that they did not have the keys to the station … In the midst of panic over the possibility of a serious accident, a retired stationmaster was called in to save the day, as he was the only one with the keys. after all.

The failures, according to Mr. Bura, are mainly due to a lack of staff. “In 2010, about 10,000 people worked in the EfE, today there are only 750 permanent employees, and another 250 people work on the service card, of which I count about 70 station managers.” The OSE reduction was a memorandum commitment “which was implemented without any plan”. As he recalls, “many colleagues were transferred to another branch of the public sector, from train drivers they became carriers of injuries, other specialties were abolished (for example, a storekeeper), those who retired were not replaced.” As a result, at many stations now, even with significant traffic, there is no station master – Volos, Florina, Serres, Kiato … Very often the maintenance of the machines is faulty – prematurely incorrect indication of the console in Titorea. almost caused a minor derailment, an incident managed internally and with a happy ending by the staff. “There are stations that require a lot of experience and know-how on the part of the stationmaster, for example, in SKA (Acharnai), in local processing 1 and 5 in Thessaloniki, in Oinoi, in Renti, at Larisa station, but also in Larissa.” But modern technological means have not been implemented. In particular, “at the Titora-Domoko section, remote control has been operating for 4-5 months, while previously the system worked at the Domoko-Plata and SKA-Tiforya sections.” Before, that is, before the station in Larisa had two station masters and was in remote control with two other workers.

The “smart” brake included in the ETCS system is widely used in Europe, although it is bought and hardly used. “It is placed on the train, and when a red signal appears, it automatically stops it, even if the train driver did not,” he describes, “but we do not have signaling in most of the network.” However, in locations where telecommunications facilities were set up, “cables were stolen and sabotaged, causing them to be taken out of service.”

The life of the workers will not be the same after the tragedy in Tempe. “Relations between us are changing in a fatal way,” Mr. Buras notes bitterly, shocked by what has happened. “My two sons and I travel by train, which I have always considered a safe and economical means,” he answers a reasonable question, “we will continue to use it, now hoping that our voices will be heard.”