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Tempe, Greece – Greece has come to a standstill during a general strike marking the second anniversary of the country’s worst rail disaster, with 346 protests reported both in Greece and abroad.
On Friday, government services, banks, and businesses shut down. Ships remained docked, trains halted, and flights in and out of Greece were canceled – a stoppage not seen since the country’s bankruptcy during the post-2009 financial crisis.
An independent accident report released on Thursday detailed a series of chronic equipment failures and human errors in the Greek railway system. These failures led to a head-on collision between a northbound passenger train and a southbound freight train in the Tempe gorge in northern Greece, killing 57 people.
Many of the victims were young students returning to university in Thessaloniki after a three-day holiday. Their deaths have turned the Tempe tragedy into a symbol of what many Greeks see as state incompetence and a lack of accountability.
“For us, it’s not an accident. It’s a crime,” said Nikos Plakias, father of two students who died in the crash, in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“I believe Tempe will remain in history as the moment politicians are finally held responsible. If not a single politician is held accountable, I’ll say this effort has failed,” Plakias added.
Plakias believes his daughters, Thomi and Chrysa Plakia, along with their cousin Anastasia-Maria, would have survived if they hadn’t moved to the car directly behind the restaurant car.
“The girls didn’t have tickets for that car. They were supposed to be in car number five. In Larissa, many people got off, and few boarded, so there were empty seats. They wanted to sit together and were led to the ‘compartment of death,’” he explained.
Alma Lata, who lost her daughter, a medical student in the armed forces, said, “We’re fighting for children’s future, for a better society. Everyone must join the protests for their own children. Our children are gone, but we must fight for the others.”
The Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority stated that Greece has long suffered from poor rail safety culture and outdated practices. Governments worsened the situation by mismanaging the financial crisis, leading to severe austerity measures that gutted the state-owned Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) of staff and left equipment to decay.
Experts also revealed that Contract 717, a 2014 EU-funded initiative to install safety equipment across the network, remained incomplete nine years later.
“Those who delayed Contract 717’s implementation have decisively contributed to these deaths,” said Christos Papadimitriou, the authority’s president.
Public suspicion of misused funds has grown, with 1.3 million people signing a petition to strip cabinet ministers of immunity so transport ministers from four governments can be prosecuted.
On the day of the accident, just kilometers from Larissa – where the stationmaster directed the train onto a collision course – the authority found numerous human and technical failures. The stationmaster, untrained to use automated controls, reverted to a manual system that didn’t display train positions. A malfunctioning signal, meant to be fixed under Contract 717, added to the chaos.
Leaked recordings show the stationmaster and the engineer failed to follow proper protocols. The engineer proceeded without confirming he was on the southbound track. Two sections of track had reverted to single-track use due to technical failures, making the engineer unaware he was on the wrong track.
Attempted Cover-Up?
The ruling conservative New Democracy party has been accused of attempting to cover up the tragedy.
“We faced serious obstacles in the investigation,” said Papadimitriou. “Turning the crash site into a ceremonial space led to the loss of critical evidence.”
Days after the crash, tonnes of gravel were hastily removed from the site, ostensibly to rebuild the tracks. However, human remains were still found in the wreckage as it was cleared. Relatives hired the Anubis Coldcase K9 Team, which recovered body parts of several victims months later.
Suspicions arose that the rushed cleanup aimed to avoid chemical analysis of residues from a post-crash fire. Surveillance footage showed an electric arc igniting two explosions after impact. Investigators noted the presence of an unidentified fuel, but proper forensic analysis was not conducted.
Earlier reports from the Hellenic Fire Service and the Ministry of Infrastructure blamed the fire on silicon oils leaking from the locomotives’ transformer coils. However, independent studies commissioned by victims’ families found residues of xylene, a flammable solvent.
The fire killed only a few victims, but the suspected cover-up has fueled public anger, with accusations that the government prioritized protecting incompetent officials over ensuring safe transport.
“From the start, the government attempted to cover things up because the crash occurred just before the general election,” said Plakias. “They feared the political fallout and acted amateurishly.”
The collision, at a combined speed of 240 km/h (150 mph), was so catastrophic that it destroyed the passenger train’s locomotive and first six cars, exposing the restaurant car to a secondary collision with steel-plated flatbeds. The fire burned longest and most violently in the restaurant car.
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