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As emergency employees continued Thursday to choose via the charred forward-most carriages, many Greeks have been already turning their focus to the causes of the catastrophe, and to a rail system that had lengthy been in worrisome form.
Although the crash had components of human error — with a station supervisor arrested for negligence — numerous officers, in addition to a rail union, additionally linked the incident to a broader set of rail infrastructure issues plaguing a rustic that also bears the bruises of final decade’s monetary disaster.
Greece’s transport minister, who resigned instantly after the crash, mentioned that the nation’s rail system “doesn’t befit the twenty first century.”
A nationwide federation of railway staff on Thursday held a day-long strike, citing unmet wants for “hiring everlasting personnel, higher coaching and, above all, trendy security know-how.” These proposals, the union mentioned, had at all times ended up “within the trash can.”
The crash is more likely to tackle a political dimension with Greece — presently led by a center-right authorities — poised to carry nationwide elections within the coming months. One of many left-wing Greek newspapers on Thursday blared the headline: “It isn’t a mistake, it’s a crime.”
The passenger prepare, with roughly 350 folks on board, had been making the journey from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest metropolis, when it collided with the freight prepare. Many on board have been younger individuals who had been celebrating the raucous carnival vacation, held ultimately after three years of pandemic interruptions.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis mentioned an unbiased panel would examine the causes of the accident and its purview would come with trying on the “perennial delays” of rail tasks.
A few of the preliminary scrutiny facilities on the technological security options of Greece’s rail traces. The Kathimerini newspaper, a serious Greek day by day, reported that an digital signaling system — a typical security characteristic throughout Europe — had been put in however was not functioning, both due to harm or sabotage, and that efforts to revive the system have been long-delayed.
In a report final 12 months on rail security, the European Union mentioned what are often called “prepare safety techniques” are “broadly thought-about probably the most efficient railway security measures for lowering the danger of collisions between trains.” In international locations equivalent to Italy and Germany, practically all tracks have such a system in place. Greece was the one European Union nation, the report mentioned, that was totally with out such a safeguard.
Final 12 months, Christos Katsioulis, the president of a committee liable for works below the European Practice Management System, stepped down citing “unfinished upkeep of the railway community.”
He additionally warned in his resignation letter about potential safety points, saying there might be trains “working at 200 km/h with none indications of the situations of the tracks, even a rupture.”
Konstantinos Genidounias, the president of the Affiliation of Greek Practice Drivers, advised state broadcaster ERT that “nothing works,” together with a central monitoring system.
“The sunshine alerts don’t work nor does the visitors management system,” he mentioned. “If these labored the drivers would see the pink mild and the trains would have stopped safely, 500 to 1,000 meters from one another.”
“We now have requested. Complained. Nothing works.”
“Every thing depends on the human issue” consequently, he mentioned. “We’re on handbook.”
Greece’s infrastructure points predate its monetary disaster, when the nation required bailout loans from worldwide and European collectors. However the issues intensified throughout that interval, in tandem with harsh austerity measures. The consulting agency PwC, in a report on Greece’s infrastructure, mentioned that between 2009 to 2019, Greece ranked lowest amongst E.U. international locations within the share of its GDP spent on infrastructure, “undermining” its high quality.
Greece was additionally pressured to unload property as a strategy to recapitalize its banks, leading to a wave of privatizations. Greece in 2017 offered its rail firm to Italy’s state railways Ferrovie dello Stato for 45 million euros ($48 million).
Earlier than the pandemic, which prompted a dramatic drop-off globally in journey, Greece had been one of many few European international locations the place prepare use was diminishing.
However Greece, now not sure by austerity measures, has tried of late to extend its infrastructure funding. It final 12 months inaugurated a fleet of higher-speed trains that lower down the journey between Athens and Thessaloniki from six hours to 4.
The Greek collision comes as the USA is within the midst of a political firestorm over a path derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that didn’t lead to any fatalities however unleashed poisonous chemical compounds into the air, water and floor.
An preliminary federal accident report discovered that, earlier than the derailment, two detectors designed to note overheated bearings didn’t go off as a result of the temperature hadn’t but exceeded a threshold set by the railroad. Because the prepare stored transferring, a 3rd detector triggered the warning, nevertheless it was too late to provide the crew sufficient time to cease earlier than the bearing failed and the prepare derailed.
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