In the shadow the incredible tragedy where we lived in Tempe the questions surrounding the safety of Greek railways are constantly increasing. The video shows what happens to them unguarded crossings that exist in Greece, which will remain unguarded as the managing director of the OSE admits due to a lack of money and spare parts. The video showing a train braking on the Thessaloniki-Serres route to let trucks pass says it all.

A passenger train approaches an unguarded crossing on the Thessaloniki – Serres axis. At the point, the automatic guarding mechanism of the crossing does not work, nor is there a guard, so the train – as incredible as it sounds – stops to allow passing trucks to pass.

A transportable guard in the role of a… conductor gets off the train seconds after a lorry has passed and prevents other vehicles from passing so that the train can continue on its way. And this image is repeated every day for dozens of routes that operate in Northern Greece.

SKAI was found in the area of ​​Doirani. A crossing on the train tracks, however, is completely unguarded as it seems that the bar is missing, as a result of which it is dangerous both for the drivers who pass by the spot with their vehicles and also for the passengers on the trains.

According to the latest record, there are 2 unguarded crossings in the Thessaloniki-Serres section, the Doirani crossing and the Akrita crossing. In fact, passenger routes are also operated in this section, in which a guard comes down and regulates the traffic.

And the alalum on the Greek railway continues… In the section Xanthi – Ormenio where only commercial routes are operated, 32 crossings are out of order and the traffic is regulated again by a navigator who gets off the train.

According to OSE, the safety systems used at these crossings are between 25 and 30 years old, with the result that there are no spare parts to repair them in case of damage.

“They don’t exist commercially. Can you now find me a computer board from the 2000s or 1990s?”, states the CEO of OSE, Panagiotis Terezakis.

According to the experts, in order to provide a solution, 90 automatic systems costing a total of 18 million euros are required, which even if secured today will take at least 2 and a half years to operate… Until then, this third-world image is probably a one-way street.