[b0g]

At least 36 people killed in Greece train crash
85 + wounded
happened at midnight, at high speeds, the moment of the leap day skip

the first and 2nd wagons are "gone"

it was bad planning,
but the drivers saying for years theres very bad signalisation at that spot: tunnel end with curve.
no investments were done since the railways were bought by Trenitalia of... Italia

[b0g]

https://greekreporter.com/2023/03/01...n-greece-dead/

Causes of the train collision

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

The collision occurred at around 11 pm local time on Tuesday.

The president of the train drivers’ association, Kostas Genidounias, revealed that the electronic systems that warn drivers of danger ahead have not been working for years. “The unthinkable has happened. The two trains were found on the same track,” he told public television ERT.

“Nothing works, everything is done manually. We are ‘in manual mode’ throughout the Athens-Thessaloniki network,” he said, emphasizing that neither the indicators, the traffic lights, nor the electronic traffic control is working.

[Bastet]

What a mess

Train travel is one of the safest modes of transport BUT if something goes wrong, the aftermath is usually brutal. In this case, it sounds like they mainly have the poorly maintained security systems to blame

[TheCruxofBag]

Some more videos and photos from the scene.

Many of the victims were thought to be university students returning home after a long holiday weekend and officials said the death toll was expected to rise further, as temperatures in one carriage had risen to 1,300 Celsius after it caught fire.

[kellyhound]

Greece has a weak record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe, tallying the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent, according to a 2022 report from the European Union Agency for Railways.

“It is a fact that we received the Greek railway system in a state that is not up to 21st century standards,” Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis said Wednesday as he resigned, adding that in the last three-and-a-half years the government had “made every effort to improve this reality.”

“Unfortunately, our efforts have not been sufficient to prevent such a bad incident. And this is very heavy for all of us and me personally.

“I hand in my resignation as transport and infrastructure minister. It is what I feel is my responsibility to do as the minimum sign of respect to the memory of the people who died so unjustly.”

Greek police told CNN that they had arrested the station manager of a train station in Larissa on Wednesday as part of a preliminary investigation. A 59-year-old man is being held in the city and is expected to appear before the prosecutor, Greek police spokeswoman Constantia Dimoglidou said Wednesday.

[b0g]

In most EU countries the ESTC safety mechnism is in place, it stops conflicting trains.
but not in Greece.

This has much to do with the fin. crisis in 2008-2009 which depleted all money for updating the rails. None was done after this.

Now the Gr. politicians are scapegoating a brand new guy, which only completed his training LAST JANUARY anno 2023!, to have MANUALLY flipped the wrong switch.
It does not go electrical over there.

Look, this is 19th century stuff.

There is no working elec. signalisation on those tracks. Anymore.

Even more, the drivers of both trains were on almost full speed, and only 1 responded to a call less than 1 minute for impact. The other could not be reached, bec. he was in the tunnel. Of course.

[kellyhound]

cctv