Greece Will Make Trains Safer, Transport Minister Vows
He also apologized for the crash that killed 57 people. But his words did little to sooth anger, as 40,000 protesters took to the streets in Athens.
As thousands of workers went on strike Wednesday to protest the train crash in Greece last week that killed at least 57 people, the country’s new transport minister turned toward the future, saying railway safety would be improved in the coming weeks and service would resume.
“We will significantly improve the level of safety,” the minister, Giorgos Gerapetritis, told reporters at a news conference in Athens, though he conceded that perennial inadequacies in infrastructure had contributed to the crash and that Greece’s railway network was, until recently, “chronically obsolete.”
Contracts signed over the past decade by successive governments aimed at installing an electronic signaling and remote surveillance system had failed to deliver, he said, noting that only 70 percent of the work had been done.
“If we had a fully functioning remote management system in the country, the tragedy most likely would not have happened,” he said. The remainder of the work will be done this year, he said, adding that European rail experts were in Athens to provide guidance. His comments were the most detailed by a prominent official since the crash on the state of the country’s railways and plans for the system.
Service on the route on which the crash happened has been suspended since the crash. Mr. Gerapetritis said steps would be taken to restore travel, possibly by the end of the month, adding that service would resume only if “absolute” safety is secured. He said that in the future there would be two station masters at every stop and a reduced number of trains. Additional workers will be hired to offset a significant reduction in staffing on the railways over the past 15 years, and training will be improved, he added.
A 59-year-old station manager has been charged with manslaughter through neglect in connection with the train collision. He is accused of putting a passenger train carrying more than 350 people and a freight train on the same line, leading to the Feb. 28 crash.
After initially blaming the crash — Greece’s worst on record — on a “tragic human error,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is up for election, revised his stance on Sunday and asked for the Greek people’s forgiveness for the chronic failings of the Greek state.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gerapetritis also apologized for the authorities’ failure to avert the tragedy. “I am in shock,” he said. “I understand the collective pain that this disaster has caused to society,” he continued, adding that the anger unleashed by the crash was “very reasonable.”