President of the Machinist’s Union: "No automation. On the Athens-Thessaloniki line, everything is done by hand"

President of the Machinist’s Union ose Kostas Genidunias on Wednesday morning spoke about the work of the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line, where the tragedy occurred with a collision of trains, saying that the automation does not work, everything is done manually.

The tragedy, where there are already 38 dead and at least 100 injured.

In particular, according to him, “nothing works, everything is done manually, we are in manual mode and along the entire axis of Athens-Thessaloniki. The traffic lights don’t work either, otherwise drivers will see a red light and stop in time.” When asked if this meant that the drivers were moving blindly, the chairman of the train drivers union replied that “Information is transmitted from the station master to the station master by radio. The head of the station tells us that in Athens you will go to Menidi, then to Inofita, in total this is done 15 times from Athens to Thessaloniki.

K. Genidunias, president of OSE machinists: “Traffic lights, systems, indicators – nothing has been working lately.” If they worked, the accident would not have happened. Along with the mess in hospitals and universities, there is also a mess in transport. The country is in total collapse.

According to him, “there were electronic systems, but they do not work, ask the responsible persons.” In response to a question about the circumstances of the accident, he said that “there is a double track at this point, one goes up, the other goes down, I don’t know why the trains ended up on the same track.”

“We follow orders. Wherever we are told to go. The entire route is double-tracked. If at some point there is work, there are branches. Everything is done by hand and by experience. Systems have not been working for many years, concluded the president of OSE machinists in an interview with ERT.

“Πάμε και όπου βγει” είπε ο μηχανοδηγός και ξεκίνησε το τρένο.

Η χώρα του “πάμε και όπου βγει.” Να που βγήκε.#Τεμπη pic.twitter.com/4UMiGeual9

— Prodromos Nikolaidis (@ProNikolaidis) March 1, 2023

“Let’s go where we need to go,” said the driver, and the train started moving. Country “go where you want”. That’s where it all came up.

PS An interesting question, but in the state Italian railway state company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane SpA, which in 2016 bought out TrainOSEdidn’t know that either? I think they knew, but now who will say about it …
PPS Now all parties will say that they are not guilty, and many will shake the statements that they warned. But the question is, why, realizing that the situation is extremely dangerous, these people did not go on strike? Or at least did not publicly publish their letters? The question is, of course, rhetorical…

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