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A ‘disarmed’ system

A ‘disarmed’ system

Basic safety mechanisms that could have prevented the deadly train crash in central Greece on Tuesday night were out of order, Vassilis Zavogiannis, the person representing the workers of Hellenic Train SA on the board of the company that operates the country’s passenger and freight trains, told Kathimerini, speaking of a system that has been “disarmed.”

“The fundamental problem on this particular line, between Athens and Thessaloniki, is that the automatic operation and signaling systems – that is the basic safety measures that protect trains from accidents – do not work,” Zavogiannis said.

‘It took 45 whole minutes to locate which part of the route the train was at. It’s shocking’

Hellenic Train SA was formerly state-owned operator TrainOSE, which was acquired in September 2017 by the Italian national railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.

“Essentially, on a line that is critical for the country, the part of safety and protection relies, in the year 2023, entirely on the human factor. Our trains operate like they did 30 years ago. To put it metaphorically, it’s like having a pothole in front of our house: We know where it is and we avoid it, but at some point we will fall into it. That’s what happened here,” he added.

On the matter of the automated system in particular, Zavogiannis noted that the technology is there, but has not been put into operation.

“It is something workers’ unions have been shouting about since 2018, when the route started going through the Kallidromo tunnel at Tithorea toward Lianokladi, instead of going through Amfikleia, Lilaia and Bralos as it did until then. Automated operation and signaling was an important part of the line’s upgrade that never went ahead,” he said.

Zavogiannis believes that human error is the most likely cause of Tuesday’s accident, though he notes that the position of the two trains that collided may not have been clear at the time of the incident.

“Just imagine that it took 45 whole minutes to locate which part of the route the train was at. It’s shocking,” he said.

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