The suburban train Proastiakos from Thessaloniki to Larissa entered the wrong rail track on Wednesday with passengers in panic fearing another train could be running towards them from the opposite direction.
The train moved on the wrong track direction for seven minutes.
“Something happened to the key…” a train employee reportedly told one of the passengers who complained.
Upset passengers reported the wrong route of the suburban train
Serious passenger complaints are coming to shake up the landscape of Greek railways again, almost three years after the tragedy in Tempi with 57 dead.
According to testimonies, the suburban train operating the Thessaloniki-Larissa route (17:30) entered the wrong exit line for several kilometers, before stopping and returning to its normal course.
“Something happened to the key and we took the wrong track,” an employee reportedly replied to a passenger who asked for an explanation, which caused intense concern among travelers.
If the train had encountered another one on the same line, the consequences could have been incalculable. The incident, which reportedly took place just outside Thessaloniki, dramatically resurfaces the issue of safety on the Greek rail network and woke up the horrible memories of the train crash tragedy in Tempi in February 2023.
Passengers also complained that most stations on the route were dark and unmanned, leaving many of them feeling strongly unsafe.
One woman reportedly left the station because she was afraid to wait in the dark. Another passenger reported that on a morning Athens-Larissa route, travelers were disembarked at the wrong stop without any information.
These incidents reveal that, despite the shock of the Tempi tragedy, the system continues to operate with safety gaps, staff shortages and coordination problems, media commented.
Hours later, on Thursday evening, deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis posted on social media that the news was not true.
No doubt because tourists don’t take trains……