They start today Monday, April 3for the first time after the tragedy in Tempi, the routes of passenger trains on the axis Athens – Thessaloniki – Athens.

On the first route departing from the station Larissa for Kalambaka the Minister of State and the person responsible for Infrastructure and Transport are traveling George Gerapetritisthe president and CEO of OSE Panagiotis Terezakis and Hellenic Train executives, wanting to send the message that the journeys are safe.

In his statements to the cameras, Mr. Gerapetritis emphasized: “Today we have the restart of the passenger train for Northern Greece to Thessaloniki and Kalambaka with a small time delay, as it was scheduled for the day before yesterday. We are on schedule as far as almost all the trains are concerned, all that remains is the suburban railway to Kiato which will start towards the end of next week, when the works which are mainly being done to highlight the lighting in tunnels to the route to Kiato”.

He then thanked the workers at OSE, ERGOSE and Hellenic Train.

“The state after the tragic accident highlighted three important issues that we must accept and fight for,” he said and continued:

“The first is to shed a lot of light on the issue of the accident and highlight the responsibilities where they exist. The second to have a safe restart. The third is to reduce the safety level of the railways to a more permanent level”.

The first Hellenic Train route started on 08:28 from Larissa station to Kalambaka and the second route is expected to start on 10:28 and will run the route Athens – Thessaloniki.

Security measures will be increased, until the network is fully operational again with all the required protocols. Reduced timetables, low speeds/longer journey times, two conductors per station, two drivers and one conductor and presence of only one train in the tunnels.

According to the planning, initially one pair of routes will be operated on the Athens-Thessaloniki-Athens axis, while from April 7th there will be 2 pairs of routes and 3 pairs of routes from April 11th.

In particular, today the itineraries are as follows:

On the axis Athens – Thessaloniki – Athens:

  • From Athens the train IC52, with a departure time of 10:28
  • From Thessaloniki the IC55 train, with a departure time of 10:08

On the route Athens – Kalambaka – Athens:

  • From Athens, train 882, with a departure time of 08:28
  • From Kalambaka the train 887, with a departure time of 16:45

It is recalled that Hellenic Train bus lines remain in operation on selected routes, until rail traffic is fully restored.

According to OSE, for Friday, April 7, 2023, the routes of the Athens Suburban in the section Piraeus-Magoula-Piraeus, as well as the route Athens-Lianokladi-Athens, are scheduled, while the routes on the Larissa-Volos lines are also expected to be announced, Paleofarsalos-Kalambaka and Thessaloniki-Larissa.

The itineraries that are already running are:

  • Piraeus – Athens – Airport
  • Ano Liosia – Airport
  • Ano Liosia – Kanza
  • Athens – Chalkida
  • Suburban Patras
  • Olympia – Pyrgos – Katakolo
  • Diakofto – Kalavryta
  • Iconium – Thriasio – Thessaloniki – Idomeni (freight)
  • Thessaloniki – Strymonas – Promahonas
  • Alexandroupoli – Ormenio (freight).

At the same time, after the completion of the cycle of apologies of the four accused, new persons, higher in the hierarchy than the three station masters and their inspector, are expected to join the “staff” of the judicial authorities and either be called to testify as witnesses, or to be examined as suspected of committing criminal acts.

According to judicial sources, it is considered certain that the two remanded defendants will be summoned for a supplementary statement, as the investigation progresses and the case file is enriched with new evidence.