Rescuers operate on the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece, on Thursday. [Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters]
The company responsible for trains on Greece’s railway network issued an official statement on Thursday in response to mounting pressure for answers into the causes of a deadly collision that took place on February 28, 2023, and is still under investigation, almost two years later.
Hellenic Train “has already provided all required data to the relevant authorities and has responded to every related inquiry,” the company’s statement said, referring in particular to calls for more transparency regarding what freight carrier No 63501 had on board when it smashed, head-on, into an Intercity train on the Athens-Thessaloniki service near the Vale of Tempe in Central Greece.
Hellenic Train’s announcement came after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday suggested that the company will be held accountable if investigators prove that the freight train was carrying illegal cargo that contributed to the fatalities, as private experts hired by the victims’ families have suggested may have been the case.
It said the freight train comprised 13 cars, the first two of which were carrying sheets of metal and the remainder containers of food products, beer and steel wires.
It added that the cargo was clearly identified on the train’s manifest, which has been submitted to the relevant authorities conducting the inquiry into the crash.
“If it is proven [that there was something suspicious on the train], Hellenic Train, which holds responsibility, must be held accountable, both legally, though that is not my role, and politically because it assured not only me but also the Greek Parliament,” Mitsotakis had said the previous day, speaking to Alpha television.
He also dismissed accusations of attempts to cover up the causes of the tragedy, saying they are a “huge lie.”
The prime minister’s appearance came after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Athens, Thessaloniki and other parts of Greece and the world demanding answers about the crash, which claimed the lives of 57 people, most of them university students going back to school after a long weekend.