Larissa, Greece: Freight train collides with passenger train (01/03/2023)

[AlterEgo]

I don't buy into the idea that the Driver didn't realise they'd been crossed over or notice they were on the opposite line. Rather than discounting the failure of communication, it seems fundamental to me that a lack of a clear communication of what was being permitted is at the core of what went wrong here, beyond an initial mistake of leaving the points incorrectly set.

I am also inclined to think this. I think a driver would realise after a short time that he was running bang road and I am sure he would have felt the train go over the crossover even if he had no visibility whatsoever. I'm not buying that the driver didn't realise either of these things and think there's a lot more going on than the Greek reports (which aren't reliably translated) suggest.

Greece is a mess I am afraid, I am sadly unsurprised to hear that a high speed line was left effectively without colour light signalling for so long.

 

[John Palmer]

There is also a facing crossover at 1:22:20 in the video - ie at a point further north from Larissa and still before the crash site. That does not change what you mean of course.

Thanks, I'd missed that one. Of course, the further out from Larissa the crossover, the more likely it is that it did not feature on the display console viewed by the stationmaster.

Functioning correctly, ETCS (European Train Control System) should have averted the Tempe collision. This system should by now have been operational on the Greek railway network but its installation has, it seems, been the subject of monumental bungling.

The extent of this mismanagement is outlined in a Railfreight.com article at https://www.railfreight.com/railfre...ent-greece-human-error-or-systematic-neglect/, and it led, on 15th February this year, to a reference of Greece to the European Court of Justice for failure to comply with its obligations under the Single European Railway Area Directive.

Frustrated by delays, cutbacks in the ETCS programme and failure to comply with its contractual scoping requirements, the chairman of Greece's ETCS authority resigned in April 2022. Full details of his resignation letter (with a translation downpage) at https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...f_the_european_train_control/?sort=confidence.

Then, less than a month before the Tempe collision, the Greek union of railway workers issued a warning of its own, to be found at https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/11ezlov/dire_warning_from_the_greek_rail_workers_union_a/ (translation also downpage).

Dating from December 2019, the most detailed and damning account I have found of the Greek implementation of ETCS is the European Data Journalism Network article at https://www-europeandatajournalism-...=el&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp, asserting that only 30km of the Greek network is subject to functioning signal control and that 80% of the signals actually existing are non-functional.

The EDJNet article concludes with the observation that “As long as modern safety systems remain inactive on the Greek railway network, Greece will hold a blood-soaked first place for European rail accident indicators.” The extent to which Greece's implementation of ETCS has been bungled was already scandalous enough in itself, but the collision at Tempe on 1st March has overlaid that failure with a revolting bloodstain. Responsibility for that should be laid at the door of the politicians, administrators and companies charged with putting the ETCS project into effect, but widespread reporting of the Greek Prime Minister's reference to human error on the part of the Larissa station master shows how readily the media's wrath can be deflected towards junior employees ill placed to defend themselves.

This ought to be an “Armagh 1889” moment for railways in Greece.

 

[the sniper]

I am also inclined to think this. I think a driver would realise after a short time that he was running bang road and I am sure he would have felt the train go over the crossover even if he had no visibility whatsoever. I'm not buying that the driver didn't realise either of these things and think there's a lot more going on than the Greek reports (which aren't reliably translated) suggest.

Greece is a mess I am afraid, I am sadly unsurprised to hear that a high speed line was left effectively without colour light signalling for so long.

A potential factor in my mind as @stuu says is that running bang road was so common that they just accepted whichever road they were given without question, but which would seem a very casual approach to working under what must have been understood to be a very ropey, degraded system of work...

 

[Lawrence18uk]

... less than a month before the Tempe collision, the Greek union of railway workers issued a warning of its own, to be found at https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/11ezlov/dire_warning_from_the_greek_rail_workers_union_a/ (translation:

Translation via deepl:

DESK-S (Democratic Unionist Trade Union Movement of Railway Workers)

Athens, 07/02/2023

ANNOUNCEMENT

Colleagues (m) , Colleagues(f)

Two more accidents in the past few days have been added to the long list of accidents involving Trains 5I and 61 respectively, putting in immediate danger both the fellow driver and the passengers.

As long as no protective measures are taken in the workplace and for the safe operation and circulation of trains, there is no end to the accidents.

It is now outrageous that these are an almost daily occurrence and that no substantial measures are being taken, no improvements are being made to the infrastructure and management, no checks are being made on the parties involved and no responsibility is being sought,

Like previous governments, the current one has other priorities, not the safe movement of citizens. They see safety as a cost.

The Ministry finds money for the various contractors, but to finally complete the railway infrastructure and safe traffic systems NO! "they have time....Sometime they will be finished."

The RAS selectively intervenes, leaving extensive gaps and serious deficiencies unaddressed.

Various agencies, OSE and HELLENIC TRAINS blame each other, but in the end no one is to blame..... It's the fault that the weather is intense and the line is flooded, it's the fault of the voices that left burnt logs, it's the fault of the snow, it's the fault of others, it's a little bit our fault and it's the fault of Hatzipetris...I!!!

We will not wait for the accident to come to see them shedding crocodile tears making statements.

 

[AlterEgo]

A potential factor in my mind as @stuu says is that running bang road was so common that they just accepted whichever road they were given without question, but which would seem a very casual approach to working under what must have been understood to be a very ropey, degraded system of work...

True, but it is Greece we're talking about...

 

[CE142]

The question has to be asked how did the Greek rail unions, Greek rail regulator, and the EU regulator allow this to carry on for so long?

Surely that kind of emergency working should only be for as short a time as possible until the fault is fixed?

This is Greece....

 

[westcoaster]

A potential factor in my mind as @stuu says is that running bang road was so common that they just accepted whichever road they were given without question, but which would seem a very casual approach to working under what must have been understood to be a very ropey, degraded system of work...

I was going to say this, especially at night if works are taking place. It might be a common tactic used and thus is second nature to the staff involved.

 

[WessexEclectic]

Looks like some Greeks are rather pissed about the situation....

Greeks protest over deadly train crash, station master jailed pending trial - Reuters

Good Greek article with some historical background - browser translator required

Tempi - The odyssey of the remote control system - kathimerini.gr

 

[duesselmartin]

Looks like some Greeks are rather pissed about the situation....

Greeks protest over deadly train crash, station master jailed pending trial - Reuters

Good Greek article with some historical background - browser translator required

Tempi - The odyssey of the remote control system - kathimerini.gr

I cannot imagine why.

Mind you, Greek protests tend to get more easily emotional than in the UK.

 

[John Palmer]

From https://www.newcivilengineer.com/la...-highlights-railway-safety-issues-03-03-2023/:

“The problem started 40km from Larissa, at the Palaiofarsalos train station. Here, the stationmaster noticed an issue with a cable in the system which powers the trains. This led the stationmaster to decide to direct the passenger train onto another track to continue its journey for safety purposes. When the train reached Larissa, the station master - who has now been arrested on manslaughter charges and had only been in the job for just over a month - did not divert the train back to its original track.”

If this is correct then the passenger train involved was already running wrong road upon arrival at Larissa, which puts a rather different complexion on matters.

First, there would have been no reason for the crew to question diversion onto the southbound line from the northbound. That had already taken place at Palaiofarsalos and the reason for it (loss of traction current) was one of which they were presumably well aware. They may also have been under the impression that loss of current on the northbound line persisted north of Larissa – if so they may not have received any cue to question continuation of wrong road working.

Second, looking at the cab ride video and Google Maps it appears that the first crossover after Larissa at which the train could have been switched back to its correct running line lay some 4.2 miles / 6.7 km north of Larissa station. There is just one other crossover before the accident site, trailing to normal flow of traffic, at which the train could have been restored to the correct running line, but that was at Evangelismos: very close to the site of the collision. In either case, such crossover would have to lie reverse in order to restore the passenger train to its correct running line, or, adopting the translation of recorded remarks of the pointsman: “Done, well, I'll leave it as it is diagonally.” Put another way, confirmation that the road was set to divert the passenger back onto the northbound running line would have been exactly what a traffic controller would have wanted to hear in any attempt he was making to avert conflict with an approaching southbound train.

Seems to me that the published exchange between the stationmaster and the pointsman will need to be examined very carefully and cross-referenced with the track on which the passenger train was running on arrival at Larissa.

 

[daodao]

may I repeat that the comparision UK vs. Europe is really not valid.
You cannot compare Greece to Sweden, Poland to Portugal. Each are different countries in different stages of development.

While EU countries are not the same, there is a greater level of difference between all of them and the UK regarding transport matters.

What about the single line head on crash at Bad Aibling (Bavaria) on 9 February 2016? Echoes of Larissa/Abermule??

The dire financial situation of Greece's railways is a direct consequence of the appalling treatment of Greece by the EU/Berlin just over 10 years ago

 

[stuu]

The dire financial situation of Greece's railways is a direct consequence of the appalling treatment of Greece by the EU/Berlin just over 10 years ago

You mean lending them €300bn to cover the fact successive Greek governments had lied about their levels of debt? As well as cancelling €100bn of debt... So ultimately this was all avoidable, if only the Greek state were more capable, to put it politely

 

[yoyothehobo]

While EU countries are not the same, there is a greater level of difference between all of them and the UK regarding transport matters.

What about the single line head on crash at Bad Aibling (Bavaria) on 9 February 2016? Echoes of Larissa/Abermule??

The dire financial situation of Greece's railways is a direct consequence of the appalling treatment of Greece by the EU/Berlin just over 10 years ago

Although the repayment measures imposed by the EU were harsh. Greece had massively overspent on the Olympics and has a historic tendency for the population to avoid paying taxes. I have a couple of Greek friends who are in their mid 30s who are quite accepting of the austerity forced upon them as otherwise the country would have completely collapsed, and notably this is from a country with quite the hatred for Germany.

I wonder if the problem here is that like many things in Greece they started upgrading it, severed the old route and didnt quite have enough money to finish it when the economy crashed and have been running on what they have got because they needed a working system

 

[Lawrence18uk]

Although the repayment measures imposed by the EU were harsh. Greece had massively overspent on the Olympics and has a historic tendency for the population to avoid paying taxes. I have a couple of Greek friends who are in their mid 30s who are quite accepting of the austerity forced upon them as otherwise the country would have completely collapsed, and notably this is from a country with quite the hatred for Germany.

I wonder if the problem here is that like many things in Greece they started upgrading it, severed the old route and didnt quite have enough money to finish it when the economy crashed and have been running on what they have got because they needed a working system

Good point. the upgrade of the line was started before the financial crash, then things were left in limbo, and they "needed a working system". Or, something that functioned, at least...

 

[MarkyT]

Although the repayment measures imposed by the EU were harsh. Greece had massively overspent on the Olympics and has a historic tendency for the population to avoid paying taxes. I have a couple of Greek friends who are in their mid 30s who are quite accepting of the austerity forced upon them as otherwise the country would have completely collapsed, and notably this is from a country with quite the hatred for Germany.

I wonder if the problem here is that like many things in Greece they started upgrading it, severed the old route and didnt quite have enough money to finish it when the economy crashed and have been running on what they have got because they needed a working system

And there's maintenance and repair which likely nosedived through the crisis due to cost of spares for the shiny new signalling and probable layoffs of many of the expensive skilled technical staff. Increased theft of vital signalling power and control cables is perhaps unsurprising when a significant proportion of the population was reduced to poverty. Some parts of the pre-crisis rail network have still not reopened; most of the metre gauge Peloponnese network for example. 'Sorry your local service into town this morning, which has been running for over 100 years and hasn't seen a penny of new investment for the last half century, has been shut down indefinitely, but a new line in a completely different part of the country has to be paid for'.

 

[AlterEgo]

I cannot imagine why.

Mind you, Greek protests tend to get more easily emotional than in the UK.

Greece has a political culture more similar to the Middle East than a democratic EU country. It is a wonderful place but it has been the architect of its own downfall.

 

[WessexEclectic]

Greece has a political culture more similar to the Middle East than a democratic EU country. It is a wonderful place but it has been the architect of its own downfall.

Small correction - Greece's elites have been the architects. After the Generals, New Democracy and Pasok parties divided the spoils...

 

[Adlington]

The European Union agency responsible for rail safety warned the Greek authorities on multiple occasions over the past few years, according to the head of the organisation who spoke to Euronews following an accident last week that killed 57 people.

Josef Doppelbauer, the Executive-Director of the EU Railway Agency said that Greece did not react in time to secure its railway system, despite its warning. Even its latest report in 2022 revealed a gloomy picture.

Since 2014, the European Commission has given Greece €700 million to modernise the railway system and plans to fund it with another €130 million through the bloc's Recovery and Resilience Fund, part of its post-pandemic rebuilding plan.

At the same time, Greece was supposed to have the European Train Control System (ETCS) in place since 2020 at the part of the network where the accident occured, but Doppelbauer says this never happened.

"It is certainly problematic that the money has not been spent as planned and it is also problematic that the commissioning of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) has been postponed now to 2023," the EU railway chief said.

Source

 

[Tetchytyke]

Greece has a political culture more similar to the Middle East than a democratic EU country. It is a wonderful place but it has been the architect of its own downfall.

Greece was a military junta in the very recent past and, as to a lesser extent in Spain and Portugal, it really shows.

The stationmaster will get the blame and the jail sentence and the real people responsible will wring their hands and move on.

Privatisation has never improved safety and it never will.

 

[Meerkat]

Privatisation has never improved safety and it never will.

The bit of Greek railways ay fault here is state run isn’t it?
I don’t see anything but political ideology in your statement anyway.

 

[Watershed]

The bit of Greek railways ay fault here is state run isn’t it?
I don’t see anything but political ideology in your statement anyway.

Indeed. The failings here are ultimately down to the low-level corruption, greed and incompetence which sadly pervades many institutions in Greece, much like many other countries in that part of the world. I don't think it particularly makes a difference whether the infrastructure is publicly or privately owned when those are the circumstances you're operating under.

 

[Falcon1200]

It seems to me there are two separate areas requiring investigation; Firstly, the organisational and structural issues that caused infrastructure deficiencies leading to a degraded method of working, and secondly the actions of those responsible for actually implementing that degraded working. The latter would also of course have to cover the training and competence of the staff involved, which would no doubt be affected by the former.

 

[MarkyT]

It seems to me there are two separate areas requiring investigation; Firstly, the organisational and structural issues that caused infrastructure deficiencies leading to a degraded method of working, and secondly the actions of those responsible for actually implementing that degraded working. The latter would also of course have to cover the training and competence of the staff involved, which would no doubt be affected by the former.

It's a problem if degraded working with manual blocking and verbal authority not backed up by the checks and balances of interlocking has become the norm. With local reports claiming up to 80% of the fairly new colour light signals are out of use due to failures, this is highly likely. If you have to do something unusual once in a blue moon you tend to be very careful and double-check, re-reading appropriate rules and instructions as necessary. If you're working in degraded modes day in, day out for every train, indefinitely, human error is probably inevitable eventually, and then you're into lap of the gods territory as far as potential consequences are concerned. Such degraded modes probably do reflect the old manual blocking methods used traditionally, but these are not appropriate for the higher speeds and traffic density the heavily modernised and rebuilt main line is capable of. I noted from the cab ride video posted earlier that there were many eurobalises fitted in the 4-foot, often at signals that seemed to be extinguished or passed at red.

 

[John Palmer]

It's a problem if degraded working with manual blocking and verbal authority not backed up by the checks and balances of interlocking has become the norm. With local reports claiming up to 80% of the fairly new colour light signals are out of use due to failures, this is highly likely. If you have to do something unusual once in a blue moon you tend to be very careful and double-check, re-reading appropriate rules and instructions as necessary. If you're working in degraded modes day in, day out for every train, indefinitely, human error is probably inevitable eventually, and then you're into lap of the gods territory as far as potential consequences are concerned. Such degraded modes probably do reflect the old manual blocking methods used traditionally, but these are not appropriate for the higher speeds and traffic density the heavily modernised and rebuilt main line is capable of. I noted from the cab ride video posted earlier that there were many eurobalises fitted in the 4-foot, often at signals that seemed to be extinguished or passed at red.

I agree, and would add that the likelihood of human error is increased if, on top of having to operate daily in a degraded system, staff also have to deal with the consequences of an out-of-course incident such as the electrical problem at Paleofarsalos in the lead-up to the accident.

Some further links that may assist an understanding of what took place:

https://hellas.postsen.com/local/255476/Tempe-Investigations-into-the-accident-are-in-full-swing-%E2%80%93-What-dialogues-and-documents-show.html – includes the following: “The OSE, according to document which was brought to “light” by ANT1 lays the blame on the Larissa station master as, as he notes, “he omitted for an unknown reason to restore peak 118”, the key, that is, “on the main line”, leaving the commercial train on the siding.” The word “peak” seems likely to to be a reference to crossover points bearing the number 118.

https://hellas.postsen.com/news/255685/Tragedy-in-Tempe-The-damage-the-one-way-and-the-model.html. This article gives some additional detail of events leading up to Intercity 62's departure from Larissa, including more detail of the incident at Paleofarsalos involving an 'electric cable' (?OHLE catenary) falling onto the preceding Athens-Thessaloniki service (Train 56). Not very clear from the article, but suggests to me that this incident resulted in the institution of single line working over the southbound track between Paleofarsalos and Larissa.

https://hellas-postsen-com.translat...=el&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp: Series of photographs showing the panel at Larissa. The orientation of the panel appears to be such that Thessaloniki-bound trains exit the panel to the left, Athens-bound trains to the right. There is a close-up of the portion of the panel containing 118 points, and the implication seems to be that 62 was diverted over these points from the northbound running line to the southbound and thus into the path of the freight train. If single line working was at the time in force over the southbound running line between Paleofarsalos and Larissa then in this scenario 62 must have been switched back to its correct, northbound, running line on the approach to the Larissa platforms, then back onto the southbound running line at 118 points.

 

[Falcon1200]

It's a problem if degraded working with manual blocking and verbal authority not backed up by the checks and balances of interlocking has become the norm.

Yes, agree absolutely.

 

[Ron Perry]

Not very clear from the article, but suggests to me that this incident resulted in the institution of single line working over the southbound track between Paleofarsalos and Larissa

Paleofarsalos station has facing and trailing crossovers at both north and south ends (Google maps). The ‘Hellas’ report suggests that the electrical incident (OHLE?) occurred at or immediately prior to train 56’s arrival there. On (very late) departure behind replacement diesel traction there seems no reason why it could not proceed ‘right line’ to Larissa. Should the northbound platform have been rendered subsequently out of commission for use by train 62, the latter could have been routed via the southbound platform and then back to ‘right line’ running at the northern pair of crossovers. That assumes the relevant points were in working order though.

 

[Halish Railway]

If anyone wants a video that epitomises Greek railway culture then watch this video. I am genuinely shocked by what happens at 06:40.

 

[CE142]

Why? It's Greece.....

 

[ac6000cw]

Why? It's Greece.....

...and various lines in a fair number of other countries...

I travelled around most of the (then metre gauge) Greek Peloponnese rail system 20 years ago, and I remember seeing very little formal signalling - I assume it was operated using train orders/telephone block.

If anyone wants a video that epitomises Greek railway culture then watch this video. I am genuinely shocked by what happens at 06:40.

Out of interest, what in particular do you find 'shocking'?

 

[357]

Out of interest, what in particular do you find 'shocking'?

I thought the same and rewatched it - I guess that all of those signals are marked out of use by the white cross