At midnight local time on February 28, near Larissa in northeastern Greece, a passenger train of the Greek Train Company from Athens (the capital of Greece) to Thessaloniki (Greece's second largest city) had just come out of the tunnel when it collided with an oncoming freight train running on the same track.
Subsequently, the first four carriages of the passenger train derailed, while the first two sections were almost completely destroyed after a fire. As of March 1, at least 40 people had died.
The passenger train was reportedly carrying about 350 passengers, many of whom were students returning from a Greek Orthodox holiday. Greece's prime minister called the accident a "tragic human error."
Why do these two trains traveling opposite sides run on the same track? Because the train was not signaled in time to switch tracks.
The day after the accident, the head of the Larissari Salet station was arrested and will face charges of manslaughter. At the same time, Greece's Minister of Infrastructure and Transport resigned. In resignation, the minister said Greece's rail system did not meet 21st century standards.
In addition, the head of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) also submitted his resignation. OSE is a 100% owned state-owned enterprise owned by the Greek government, the owner of all railway infrastructure in Greece, and is responsible for the maintenance and operational supervision of railway infrastructure.
Is Greece's rail system really backward?
According to Greek railway workers, on the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line, all electronic devices such as indicators, traffic lights and electronic traffic controls are difficult to use and can only be carried out manually.
This railway line is also one of the most important lines in Greece, and you can imagine what problems other lines will have.
Local Greek media reported that the electronic equipment of Greek railways has been problematic for a long time, that railway management is based almost entirely on personal experience, and that 80% of railway traffic lights in Greece are either turned off or always red.
In addition, the train control system, an indispensable "on-board assistant" of the modern railway system, has been in a blank stage in Greece.
Some countries have upgraded the technology of train control systems to Level 3 or even Level 4, while Greece has been stuck in Level Zero space. Therefore, the driving and safety of Greek trains depends largely on the personal ability and energy of the driver.
The Greek government has also been trying to change the backward state of the railway system over the years, but progress has been very slow, perhaps because it has found the wrong contractor for the project, or because Greece is too empty of money.
In 2006, Greece signed a contract with Ansaldo, then acquired by Hitachi, an Italian company that was responsible for installing Level 1 train control systems on Greek trains, a project that cost 21.3 million euros (about 156 million yuan).
In mid-2018, the project was completed after several delays, taking nearly 13 years, and the number of completed trains delivered was 26 fewer than originally planned.
Although the train with this system has been delivered, the upgrade of track signaling and communication technology has not been completed, that is, the on-board has been done, but the external equipment has not kept up, so the Greek train has not used this system until now.
In the supporting part, in 2014, Greece hired the French military-industrial high-tech giant Thales to be responsible. As a result, Thales Group was so out of line with its reputation on the project that delivery was delayed several times, from the original date of 2017 to the end of 2020.
In addition, Thales Group has increased the project budget by 12.3 million euros (about 90 million RMB), compared to the original project budget of only 3.8 million euros (about 28 million RMB).
As for whether Thales Group has been completed, no information can be found at this time. However, according to the latest information, Greece has not used the higher-level train control system so far.
Greece expects the first train control systems to be operational by the end of 2023. What a long wait.
The real reasons behind the delay are unknown, but Greece has been struggling to make ends meet for many years. If the money from Greece is available, will the procrastination of project contractors still occur?
In 2009, Greece announced that due to a serious fiscal deficit, the Greek country was in a debt crisis, Greece was on the verge of fiscal collapse, and for several years, Greece had to survive on rescue loans from other countries. It wasn't until 2018 that Greece's debt crisis was largely over.
During this time, the Greek government implemented privatization reforms on railways, selling projects that were originally related to people's livelihoods to foreign companies.
The company involved in the accident, Hellenic Train, is one of the largest transport providers in Greece and operates most of the country's railway lines.
Moreover, Hellenic Trains is the only train operator in Greece that allows passenger services.
The monopoly on the Greek passenger train market is a 100% owned subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
Yes, the Hellenic Train Company is an Italian business through and through.
The Hellenic Train Company, formerly known as TrainOSE, changed its name in 2022. TrainOSE was part of the aforementioned OSE before becoming an independent state-owned enterprise in 2008.
In 2013, in order to alleviate the debt crisis, the Greek government decided to privatize the railway, planning to sell passenger train companies and railway maintenance enterprises.
In September 2017, Trenitalia wholly acquired TrainOSE for 45 million euros (about 330 million RMB) and committed to investing a cumulative 500 million euros (about 3.6 billion RMB) in Greek railway infrastructure by 2020.
According to the European think tank OBC Transeuropa, this promise has not been fulfilled.
In 2019, the Greek government sold the enterprise responsible for the maintenance of Greek railway cars (EESSTY) to TrainOSE. In this way, Italy also controlled the maintenance of all trains (passenger and freight) in Greece.
What will happen if the privatization of railways will occur? After the train derailment in Ohio, we talked about the fact that the drive to ensure rail safety always lagged behind the motivation to maximize profits.