Railways to gradually return to service from March 22
The country’s railways will gradually return to service on March 22, three weeks after the deadly Tempe disaster, the minister with responsibility for transport announced on Tuesday.
Passenger and freight services on the route linking Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, the busiest across a 2,500-km rail network, have been halted since the train crash on February 28 which killed 57 people and injured scores.
The railway restart will unfold in five phases, with a five-day gap between each phase, Minister for State Giorgos Gerapetritis said.
“Restarting the railway is necessary to regain public confidence. In addition, a delay in starting operation, even with a limited number of routes, poses serious risks of theft and/or sabotage,” he said, noting that there was a “very serious problem in transporting freight to neighboring states.”
He said the entire railway network will be inspected ahead of the restart as debris and other material may have found its way onto the tracks since the trains stopped running.
He also said that rust buildup on the unused tracks will have to be removed to ensure seamless contact with carriage wheels.
The first services scheduled for restart are suburban (Proastiakos) services around Athens, including the Piraeus-Athens Airport routes, Kantza-Liosia and Athens-Halkida lines, and a number of services out of the northern cities of Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli.
The Kiato-Athens suburban service is scheduled to restart on March 27.
Intercity services on the Athens-Thessaloniki route should resume on April 6 but will be limited to one or two services daily.
In addition to increasing the minimum number of stationmasters and engine drivers in stations and trains, a maximum speed limit of 80 and 100 kilometers per hour, respectively, will apply on non-signaled sections of the track. [AMNA, Reuters]
