Tempe, Greece passenger/freight collission

A fiery Greece train collision kills dozens and injures more than 80

TEMPE, Greece — A head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train flattened carriages, killed at least 36 people and injured some 85, Greek officials said Wednesday.

Before dawn the next day, rescuers searched through twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors. What appeared to be the third carriage lay atop the clumped remains of the first two.

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the two trains ran into each other at high speed just before midnight Tuesday, near the town of Tempe in northern Greece.

Many of the approximately 350 people aboard the passenger train were students returning from Greece's raucous Carnival, officials said. This year was the first time the three-day festival, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

The drone photos suggest the passenger train was on the wrong track. All the European passenger services I've ridden (none in Greece) kept right on double track. One report said both crew on each locomotive died.

No, the split seems to be about even. Left-hand running is the practice in France (except "classic" routes in Alsace-Lorraine), Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, and some routes in Austria. Left- vs. right-hand running is a whole saga in France and Austria.

The next story after the link states that owing to an unrelated disruption the passenger train was "wrong-lined" on the opposing track without necessary protection against trains running in the assigned direction. There are references to "ascending" and "descending" lines, causing me to wonder whether the Greek railways use "up" and "down", British style, to indicate direction of traffic.

Double track, but head-on crash.
The Irish Times gave the tragedy lengthy coverage.
Link https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe ... ed-signal/

Interesting; the Irish Times combines Reuters with the Guardian, which I'd already read, for a fuller understanding.

I've little experience with the "Stationmaster as block operator and interlocking operator" system, but it does require all the stationmasters to be in good communication and working to the same plan. That appears to have been the point of failure in this accident. Had the freight train crew or someone with overall responsibility for the whole line heard that radio exchange, tragedy might have been avoided.

Regarding the handedness of double track, I recall a Thalys trip with considerable running on the left, but Eurostar, RER and a TGV trip Paris-Lyon round trip ran on the right. Likewise a Milan - Rome run on the HS line was on the right. All at least a decade ago, though.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/stat ... -rcna73480

Stationmaster charged in Greece train crash that killed 57

THENS, Greece — A stationmaster accused of causing Greece’s deadliest train disaster was charged with negligent homicide and jailed pending trial Sunday, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized for any responsibility Greece’s government may bear for the tragedy.

An examining magistrate and a prosecutor agreed that multiple counts of homicide as well as charges of causing bodily harm and endangering transportation safety should be brought against the railway employee.

At least 57 people, many of them in their teens and 20s, were killed when a northbound passenger train and a southbound freight train collided late Tuesday north of the city of Larissa, in central Greece.

The 59-year-old stationmaster allegedly directed the two trains traveling in opposite directions onto the same track. He spent 7 1/2 hours Sunday testifying about the events leading up to the crash before he was charged and ordered held.
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Greek media have reported that the automated signaling system in the area of the crash was not functioning, making the stationmaster’s mistake possible. Stationmasters along that part of Greece’s main trunk line communicate with each other and with train drivers via two-way radios, and the switches are operated manually.
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