Tempi crime: Karamanlis knew about the risk since 2021 – 2024-04-17 10:31:13

Five memos from Transportation Department executives on the three problems that led to the Tempe crime have been ringing alarm bells for train passenger safety ever since.

Informed personally by top officials of his ministry about the tragic situation in the Greek railway and the dangers that existed at least two years before the fatal accident of Tempo the then Minister of Transport Kostas Karamanlis. As Documento reveals today, as early as March 2021, managers of the Ministry of Transport had informed the political leadership of the ministry in writing with at least five detailed memoranda about the significant problems that existed in OSE.

It was about three issues related to the proper functioning of the organization. The first had to do with years of underfunding of the OSE, which had a serious impact on the adequate maintenance of the rail network, which was already experiencing major problems. The second issue had to do with the lack of staff at the OSE. It is typical that in the memos that were brought to the attention of K. Karamanlis, there was talk of an “urgent need” to hire 290 people. Something that even today, i.e. three years later, has not happened! The third issue concerned the non-payment by TRAINOSE (now Hellenic Train) and STASY of tens of millions of euros to OSE as “infrastructure fees” for the use of the railway network and other services.

Despite the official written updates, however, the political leadership of the Ministry of Transport was defiantly indifferent. As he did with the written warnings of the train drivers, who sounded the alarm for a possible accident due to “lack of maintenance of the network as a result of the underfunding and understaffing of the OSE” and in a macabre way they were confirmed. But let’s see in detail what the managers of the Ministry of Transport reported to K. Karamanlis.

They were issuing an SOS on finance

At the beginning of 2021, senior officials of the Ministry of Transport informed the political leadership of the ministry in writing about a particularly important issue concerning the OSE. As they reported, the railway organization was facing a serious financial problem. In particular, he was no longer able to exploit his property, namely the railway network, with the result that his income from commercial activity was zero. As a result the OSE had only two sources of income: the government grant and access fees.

However, as the OSE managers informed the then minister in detail, the state grant money then amounted to 45 million euros, while the annual expenses for the two years 2019-20 amounted to 85 million euros, with at least half of this amount to concern payrolls. The shocking thing that demonstrates the minister’s complete indifference to what was happening at the OSE and what could be caused in terms of employee and passenger safety is the following element, which the managers specifically pointed out to him: of these costs as maintenance costs of the of the OSE railway network, the amount of 5 million euros was recognized for 2019 and 4.6 million euros for 2020. However, according to estimates, more than 45 million euros were required to carry out all the necessary network maintenance works. In other words, the money allocated fell short of the real need by… 40 million euros, while the overall cash needs of the organization were short of 65 million euros per year in relation to the income.

In 2022, the amount of the state grant to OSE increased to 75 million euros. One of the reasons for this was the pressure exerted on the Greek government by the Commission. However, according to Documento’s well-informed sources, even today the Ministry of Transport has not created the conditions to absorb this money for the purpose for which it was secured. Also, according to the same sources, even today a long-term maintenance plan for the projects has not been drawn up, but instead the old model of piecemeal and incomplete maintenance is maintained in terms of dealing with infrastructure problems, which may become critical to the network security.

Debts of €45 million to OSE

Inadequate government funding was only one side of the coin when it came to OSE’s finances. The other side had to do with the non-payment by Hellenic Train (formerly TRAINOSE) and STASY of tens of millions of euros to OSE as “infrastructure fees” for the use of the railway network and other services. Specifically, in the written briefings to K. Karamanlis from the managers of his ministry, among other things, debts of 45 million euros were mentioned. Of these, 30 million euros related to STASY’s debts to OSE and 14 million euros to TRAINOSE.

Especially for TRAINOSE (now Hellenic Train) a big issue had arisen. It is characteristic that the last “railway network access contract” signed by TRAINOSE with OSE was in 2019. The reason was that TRAINOSE did not want to accept the payment of access fees to OSE for the use of the rail network. Simply put, in 2021, more than two years had already passed since the payment of a significant income to the OSE, valuable for the smooth operation and coverage of the network’s maintenance needs, had not been regulated.
The impressive thing is that even today this issue has not been resolved, even though already in 2021 the OSE had sent a relevant court order to TRAINOSE and letters to Hellenic Train and RAS of which the political leadership of the Ministry of Transport is aware.

The recruitments that did not take place

The third issue on which the managers of the Ministry of Transport had personally informed the political leadership concerned the need to recruit staff to the OSE. In more detail, according to information from Documento, it was May 2021 when K. Karamanlis and the then Deputy Minister of Transport Ioannis Kefalogiannis were informed that they had to immediately hire 290 people at OSE. These were various specialities, such as engineers, stationmasters, technicians, machine operators, etc., which were characterized as “urgent”, as any “delay” would add to the already existing issue of smooth running of the railway. For these reasons, they even requested that these recruitments be made outside of the procedures provided for by the ASEP, through an amendment that would be tabled in Parliament, so that they would be completed by October 2021.

The appeal for urgency was not heeded. Seven months later, by an act of the Council of Ministers (PYS), it was decided to hire only 117 people in the OSE out of the 290 that had been recommended to K. Karamanlis. That is, less than half and while they had pointed out to the Minister of Transport the importance of recruitment.

Several months later, specifically in May 2022, it was decided by ministerial decision to hire 90 people in the OSE, since a year had passed since the initial proposal. Proceedings progressed but again slowly. OSE drew up the relevant announcement under the approval of ASEP in December 2022, while it was published in January 2023. A year and a half after the anguished appeal and a month before the fatal accident in Tempe. About 11,000 people applied for recruitment. However, to date no one has been hired. The inaction of the political leadership is unprecedented even after the crime of Tempe.

The drivers’ courts

About these problems and the risks involved, the political leadership of the Ministry of Transport had been informed several times in writing by the Panhellenic Union of Traction Personnel (engine drivers). In particular, the union had personally sent two letters to K. Karamanlis, with which he exposed the problems that existed regarding the safety of workers and travelers. The first on August 26, 2020, when there was a “serious incident” with a train that had departed from Kiato bound for Aigio. The workers were alarmed and asked the minister to immediately draw up recommendations for the faithful observance of the regulations and to immediately take all the necessary measures that would minimize the possibility of a similar incident happening again.

In the same letter, the workers made it clear to the minister that “in most (more than 90%) of the railway infrastructure, light signals and remote control, as well as the train against human error system (ETCS), galleries (s .s.: tunnels) in the suburbs of Athens are not lit and the communication systems do not work inside them” etc. In fact, the union clearly stated its intention to cooperate with all the relevant agencies in order to minimize any possibility of a similar incident, such as the derailment they had already described.

They begged for a meeting and a solution

A second letter addressed to the general secretary of Transport, which of course has been communicated to Mr. Ah. Karamanli, was sent by the workers’ union on October 29, 2021. It listed the accidents that had occurred in 2020 and 2021, while the workers appealed for a meeting to discuss and resolve the problems related to their safety.

Also in the same letter they listed the derailments and collisions that had occurred on the railway network from August 2020 to October 2021. The train drivers were ringing a bell to the political leadership of the Ministry of Transport. “In addition to these, the frequency of which is extremely alarming in recent months, there are dozens of other micro-incidents (stoning of trains, monorails, delays of tens of kilometers, etc.), the data of which is available to our Association, having informed the competent authorities” said characteristically. Unfortunately, despite their constant appeals to the authorities, they were never listened to, just as the experienced managers of the Ministry of Transport were not listened to either.

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