600 train passengers on Athens-Thessaloniki route were stranded in northern Greece on Friday due to a technical problem.
According to passengers, the delay reached 1.5 hours although representatives of Hellenic Train spoke of a delay of 50 minutes.
The reason for another day of inconvenience for the passengers of the Hellenic Train was the failure of a key, which short-circuited at the TX1 point between Sindos and Thessaloniki, as a result of which even local handling could not be performed, newspaper ethnos.gr reported.
In practice this meant that train traffic was halted for all trains of the axis heading to and from Thessaloniki, while delays have also occurred in the suburban routes of Thessaloniki.
Train IC52, which was full with 300 people on board, was stopped at the point until the damage was repaired by an OSE crew responsible for the infrastructure.
Απίστευτο. Το τρένο από Αθήνα δεν εφτασε ποτέ Θεσσαλονίκη και μας αφηνει στη Σίνδο με τους επιβάτες εξοργισμένους.
Ακούστε τις διαμαρτυρίες τους
Τόση ωρα καθυστέρηση και δεν κάλεσαν καν λεωφορεία να μας πάρουν.
Μες στη ζέστη και δε μας δώσανε καν ένα νερό.
Η τραγωδία των… pic.twitter.com/4iazlMA99O— Chris Avramidis (@chris_avramidis) June 23, 2023
Stranded passengers complained on social media that there was no bus made available by the company to take them to their destination and there were not offered even a bottle of water due to the summer heat.
The passengers complained also that they were forced to get off at Sindos as the alternative offered to them was to remain on the train for an unknown time, media reported.
Ultimately, after two hours, stranded passengers got a bottle of water, while bus arrived to take them to Thessaloniki, reported journalist Chris Avramideschris_avramidis” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”> who was on board.
What rubbish. We were on that train travelling from Athens to Thessaloniki and although everyone got off at the earlier station, water was given free of charge to everyone on the train and water was available for everyone on the platform. Passengers were advised buses were on their way to transport us onwards. Staff were very helpful, polite and understanding of people’s frustration. No where near the numbers of Passengers at this stage as reported.