Derailments not always reported
A suburban railway train derailed at Athens International Airport early yesterday without causing injuries, as statistics showed that only half the derailments that occur in Greece are made public. In yesterday’s incident, a driver’s error resulted in a train on the Athens suburban railway route derailing at the airport station. There were no passengers aboard at the time. Meanwhile, an analysis of official statistics show that 20 train derailments occurred in Greece last year but only 12 of these were reported by the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE). The European Railway Agency asked OSE to submit a full report of all derailments two months ago but OSE allegedly has not yet submitted its data. Inadequate repairs and maintenance staff are believed to be the main reason for frequent derailments in Greece. Yesterday’s derailment was one of many this year. There were two incidents in March. One, near the central city of Larissa, injured 28 people.
