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.