An incident similar to the one in Tempe is revealed to have happened 10 months ago, on May 23, 2022, at Serres station, when a passenger train full of people was stopped and at the same time a commercial train was ordered to pass through the same point.

According to a post-complaint by the Panhellenic Union of Stationmasters OSE (PESOSE), then passenger train 3634 stopped at Serres station. Instead of ordering the train to withdraw with a spare engine, a freight train is ordered to head to Serres as well. At a station that is not working and there is no station master. The two trains are now on a collision course.

“It was not working and therefore it was not possible to arrange the changes (keys) in a siding, so that there would be no collision of the 2 trains (both were moving on a single line)”, the post points out.

As soon as it was realized what had happened, a line worker was ordered to go to Serres station with a key to make the changes and save the collision.

As pointed out in PESOSE’s complaint, “the dissolution prevailing in OSE has no end. The fellow line worker and fellow locksmith who arrived at Serres station found that they did not have the Serres station keys to enter the building and get the necessary tools for the required actions.”

“It was requested after some mistake that had been made, to change the key at the Serres station office, which was closed. There was already a risk that this human error would have a tragic development, because they could not find the person responsible, so that he could open the door of the station office and make this key change”, said Paschalis Tosios, journalist.

The accident was averted at the last minute thanks to a retired station master

What solution was finally found? The accident that could have claimed dozens of lives was averted thanks to a retired station master.

“Panicized, the official mechanism of the OSE and faced with a possible accident that would cost human lives, called a retired station master of the area who had (how did they come to be in his possession) keys to the Serres station and asked him to immediately open the building, as he did “, PESOSE writes in its complaint.

The PESOSE complaint ends with an unfortunately prophetic phrase: “We warn that if these criminal omissions and actions continue, they will cost human lives.”