On Monday (Apr 3), partial service resumed on the main train line connecting Athens and Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, five weeks after the country’s worst train crash, which claimed 57 lives.
On Feb 28, a freight train collided head-on with a passenger train carrying over 350 people, including many young students.
The crash resulted in angry protests that continued for weeks. Observers anticipate that the upcoming general election in May will be significantly impacted by it, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis seeks re-election.
Transport Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis, along with the head of the rail network company (OSE) and representatives of the privatised train company Hellenic Trains, travelled on the first train between Athens and the central town of Kalambaka on Monday to reassure passengers.
Gerapetritis told the media that their duty is to provide a modern rail service that lives up to everyone’s expectations, which can develop and be among the best in Europe. He also stated that the government not only has a duty, but they also owe a debt to the victims of the tragic accident whose lives were unjustly cut short.
Experts have partially attributed the disaster that took place in Tempe, central Greece, to the stationmaster who was on duty near the crash site. However, it has also brought attention to government delays in modernising rail safety systems.
Mitsotakis initially attributed the tragedy to human error, but later he acknowledged that chronic failings plagued the train system.
He has vowed, if re-elected, to install electronic safety systems on the rail network by the end of September.