Greece aims to restart its railways by the end of March following the country’s worst-ever train crash last week that killed 57 people and is sparking a political backlash against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Rail employees have been on strike since the crash, while other workers including civil servants, teachers, ferry crews and bus drivers walked off their jobs Wednesday.
The Greek government will proceed with a significant upgrade to the safety level of the country’s rail network, the new transport minister, Georgios Gerapetritis, told reporters in Athens Wednesday. Several new measures will apply until a national electronic monitoring system is fully installed, including the requirement to have two station masters at each rail station, increased funds for the whole rail network and a reduced timetable for the time being or even fewer stops, he said.
The aim is to restart the rail network as soon as possible once the government secures these necessary safety conditions, probably by the end of month, the minister said. “If we had a complete electronic control system, the accident would most likely not have happened,” Gerapetritis said, who was given the transport portfolio after his predecessor resigned following the accident.
A week after the tragedy, public anger is mounting over the causes of the accident, which occurred when a passenger train traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki and a freight train collided at high speed on the same track in the Tempe valley of central Greece.
“We demand, together with all workers and the people, that the policy of privatizations is put to an end and that the real reasons for the murderous crime of Tempe be found,” Adedy, the umbrella organization for public sector labor unions, said in a statement announcing the 24-hour strike.
The collision ignited a fire with the temperature in the burning car reaching as high as 1,300C (2,372F). Many on board and among those killed were students returning to their places of study following a long holiday weekend.
The crash has raised questions about how the Greek state functions amid claims that the country hasn’t upgraded its rail network in line with European Union requirements.
“In Greece of 2023, it is not possible for two trains to run on opposite sides of the same track without anyone noticing,” Mitsotakis said in a public apology on Sunday in a post on his Facebook page. He reiterated though that the accident was triggered by a human error by saying that “we can't, we don’t want and we shouldn’t,” hide behind it.
The train accident adds to the pressure Mitsotakis is facing following disclosures last year that the country’s national intelligence service spied on the leader of Greece’s opposition socialist Pasok party, and a reporter investigating powerful business figures.
The Greek premier’s term ends in July. Before the deadly event, Mitsotakis’s center-right New Democracy party consistently led in polls and the premier was expected to call an early election. No new polls have been published since the accident.
A first ballot will take place under a straightforward proportional representation system, making it hard to have a single-party government with the probable need for a second general election around a month later. That vote will happen under a semi-proportional system that makes it easier to shape a government.
Following contacts between Mitsotakis and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany will send a team of experts to Greece who will further investigate the accident and make proposals for changes, Gerapetritis said.
