The Panhellenic Union of Railway Personnel sent two extrajudicial documents to a prosecutor and the Hellenic Train warning of the safety conditions in the country’s railway network.
The first document is addressed to the Special Appellate Investigator of Larissa, central Greece. It makes known that there is recorded video material, which was recorded from the driver’s cabin of a train traveling the Athens-Thessaloniki route, in the autumn 2022, on behalf of of Hellenic Train. Present was a HT executive,an engineer, who accurately described the problems in the network. The Union demands that the prosecutor requests the recovery of the video from the Hellenic Train.
Όπως αναφέρει το σωματείο των μηχανοδηγών, είχε προηγηθεί αίτημα προς την εταιρεία μέσω επιστολής στις αρχές Μαΐου με το οποίο ζητούσαν την αποστολή του υλικού εν όψει συνέντευξης τύπου ωστόσο, σύμφωνα με τους ίδιους, η εταιρεία αγνόησε το αίτημα αυτό.
As the train drivers’ union reports, there was a previous request to the company through a letter at the beginning of May requesting the sending of the material in view of a press conference, however, according to them, the company ignored this request.
The second document is addressed to Hellenic Train and OSE and refers to the daily problems faced by railway workers as the necessary actions have not yet been taken in order to improve the railway network a year and a half after the train collision in Temper in February 2023, where 57 people were killed.
“The indifference of those responsible for safety standards poses risks for another accident. Despite our constant appeals to you to repair the increasing problems of the rolling stock and the railway infrastructure, we are daily witnessing various incidents of damage, which endanger the physical integrity of both passengers and fellow train drivers,” it is stated, among others.
It refers to a fire incident near the TX3 remote control station in Thessaloniki on Friday, June 14, 2024, which took on dimensions due to the vegetation along the rail tracks that “that the authorities refrain from cutting, a fact which poses risks for the loss of human lives, let alone in the summer months, in the midst of heatwaves, with particularly high temperatures, especially in Northern Greece where a large number of commercial trains move every day.”
It recalled that these are problems that have been brought to the attention of those in charge many times.
Finally, reference is made to “serious problems with the traffic lights in the area of the SKA (constant sudden changes that force the train drivers to activate the immediate brake, causing concern to the passengers), as well as the remote control between Athens and Thessaloniki, which was out of order between department of St. Stefanos – Larissa – Evangelismos, it no longer works in the section between Leptokarya – Litochoro, while in most cases train drivers are asked per telegrams to deal with red traffic lights.”
Through the τςο extrajudicial documents, the Union requests the immediate restoration of the problems, otherwise the union will take “actions and mobilizations […] so that we do not have another loss of human life.”
source: athenstransport.com
