Passenger and freight services on the route linking Athens and
the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, the busiest across a
2,500-km (1,550 mile) rail network, have been disrupted since a
train collision on Feb. 28 killed at least 57 people.
"No train will set off again, if we have not secured safety at
the maximum possible level", the minister, George Gerapetritis,
told a news conference, apologizing for Greece's deadliest rail
crash on record.
Rail workers have held rolling 24-hour strikes over the crash
since Thursday, bringing the network to a halt. They have blamed
years of neglect, underinvestment and understaffing which lead
to a creaking rail infrastructure and deficient safety systems.
Rail unions and industry sources have pointed to a remote
surveillance and signaling system, which controls train traffic
and guides drivers, saying it had not been functioning properly
for years.
The government has blamed human error but Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis has accepted some of the criticism, saying
that if such a system worked properly, the accident could have
been averted.
Gerapetritis, who became minister following the resignation of
Kostas Karamanlis on March 1 over the disaster, said that 70% of
that system has been delivered so far and that the rest was
expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.
That equipment needs to be installed throughout the network
before a European Train Control System (ETCS), the EU-wide
benchmark allowing for constant supervision of moving trains and
emergency braking, is installed.
"We estimate that soon, signaling and remote surveillance will
be fully in place along with a complementary ETCS system, ready
and operating so there are no other fatal incidents,"
Gerapetritis said.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and Lefteris Papadimas, Editing
by William Maclean)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|