“Today’s session focuses on one of the most critical government activities, which is none other than the substantial upgrade of the safety and quality of trains in the country,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated at the cabinet meeting on Monday.
He pointed out that this is not a process starting now, but rather one that is being accelerated. He stressed that, “later today, contracts will be signed at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for the restoration of infrastructure in Thessaly, which was destroyed by Daniel shortly after the completion of Contract 717 in September 2023. The project’s timeline is tight – 15 months – and upon its completion, the entire main railway axis will not only have full remote control and signaling systems but also an additional automatic braking system.” He added that the specific system, ECTS – which brakes or even immobilizes trains when traffic rules are violated – has already been successfully tested and will be installed on every train traveling the country’s main line by next September.
“At the same time, another major initiative is being introduced: a new method for the precise real-time geolocation of trains,” Mitsotakis continued. “This is an additional safety mechanism that will essentially eliminate the possibility of two trains colliding. While conventional GPS systems can have an error margin of up to 15 meters, the Unified Supervision Center being established – using this new technology – will track trains with accuracy down to a few centimeters. This way, any potential problem will be identified immediately, whether on a single or a double track,” he explained.
He added that soon, this new platform, which we are calling railway.gov.gr, will be accessible to all citizens so they can verify the reliability of the train schedules.
“We are talking about many combined actions, all aimed at restoring passengers’ trust in Greek trains,” he emphasized.
He pointed out that the interventions to be discussed today are bold, with a much stricter framework, greater flexibility in hiring and workers’ compensation, and a more effective management system that will have the ability to draw on talent from the international market.
“Our goal is that Greek railways (OSE) will evolve into a new PPC, which we took over in 2019 practically bankrupt, to be today a healthy and dynamic growing company, a protagonist in the energy market in Southeastern Europe and not only in our country,” he underlined and added:
“Our goal is also to embed a new culture of safety and professionalism at all levels with incentives for good performance as well as strict procedures that will prevent disastrous omissions and tragic mistakes so that the state’s responsibility is combined daily with the conscientiousness of the employees themselves.”
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Source: ANA-MPA
