GREECE: The government has restructured the way the rail infrastructure is managed, in response to the systemic failures exposed by the head-on collision between passenger and freight trains near Tempi which killed 57 people.
The report into the 2023 crash which was published by accident investigation body EODASAAM in February this year said infrastructure manager Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) had neglected maintenance of critical control, safety and signalling equipment.
The reforms which took effect on August 28 have been implemented under legislation approved by parliament in July.
There are three main pillars to the reforms:
- restructuring the infrastructure manager;
- upgrading safety and supervision of the network;
- better training of staff.
Greek Railways
The previously independent infrastructure manager OSE, project delivery company ErgOSE and property and rolling stock management company GaiaOSE have been merged to form Greek Railways (Ellinikí Sidiródromi Monoprósopi).
This now owns, maintains and operates all rail infrastructure except the Athens Metro. Its President is George Ioannou, who had been President of OSE since 2024, with Christos Palios as Chief Executive Officer.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport, the new body will comprehensively enhance safety, strengthen network supervision and improve staff skills, based on European operating and governance standards.
Train operations
OSE had been responsible for both infrastructure and operations until 2005 when it was vertically separated.
Train operator TrainOSE was privatised in September 2017, with Italian state railway FS Group acquiring full ownership, and it was renamed Hellenic Train in July 2022.
Hellenic Train began using ETR470 Pendolino trainsets transferred from Italy on the Athens – Thessaloniki route in May 2022. However these have recently been taken out of service.
On September 17 FS Group told Railway Gazette International that Hellenic Train was unable to operate the Pondolinos owing to modernisation works on the route so is using diesel trains instead.
The works mean there is a significant reduction in line capacity, so Hellenic Train has reduced the service from four to two daily train pairs.
