Intercity trains in Greece are running again

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All necessary measures have been taken to increase the safety of train travel, Greek Transport Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis assured Monday in Athens. He then boarded the first intercity train to Kalambaka in central Greece, home to the Meteora monasteries, which are popular with tourists.

Two intercity trains must therefore run between Athens and the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki, reports Greek state television ERT. The serious accident happened on this route on the night of 1 March.

A station master in the city of Larisa had sent a passenger train on the wrong track. This was followed by a head-on collision with a freight train. However, the human error would have had no consequences had the electronics worked, the ongoing investigation found.

The tragedy is also a major theme in the campaign leading up to the general elections that will take place in Greece on May 21. Conservative government leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly apologized for the accident and promised to modernize Greece’s ailing railway line.

The left-wing opposition accuses him of neglecting Greece’s railways – with the result that existing modern security and control systems do not or hardly work.

(SDA)

Source: Blick