Workers Strike Across Greece on Anniversary of Deadly Train Crash

A general strike in Greece on Friday halted trains and ferries, grounded flights and disrupted public services as thousands of workers walked off the job on the second anniversary of Greece’s worst-ever railway disaster.

The 24-hour walkout, called by Greece’s two main labor unions, is the latest in a series of public protests over a dragging judicial investigation into the crash, in which 57 people were killed. There is still lingering anger in the country over the government’s failure to put any of its politicians under scrutiny over the loss of life.

Here is what to know about the strike and the enduring anger over the accident.

What does the strike entail?

The strike involves public- and private-sector workers.

Rallies were taking place in Athens and across Greece, with protesters calling for those at fault in the crash to be punished and for rail safety to be improved.

All commercial flights to and from Greek airports were grounded, and no ferries or trains were running. Limited public transportation was operating in Athens to allow demonstrators to get to the rally. Although taxi drivers joined the strike, some volunteers were offering protesters free rides to rallies.

Schools and hospitals were also affected as teachers and health care workers joined the action. Lawyers and ambulance workers walked out, too, while many shops closed. Several popular artists have canceled planned shows.

What happened in the train accident?

On the night of Feb. 28, 2023, a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on on a route linking Athens with the northern port of Thessaloniki. Many of the 57 people who died in the crash were young students returning from a holiday weekend.

At the time, the Greek authorities blamed human error, saying that a routing mistake by a station master had put the passenger train onto the same track as an oncoming freight train. But they also admitted to shortfalls in Greece’s railway infrastructure and delays in installing modern safety systems that could have averted the disaster.

The deadly episode set off days of protests as people demanded accountability and greater rail safety.

Two years later, questions remain about the exact circumstances of the crash.

A report by an independent rail and air investigation authority set up after the tragedy, whose results were made public on Thursday, found that delays in installing electronic signaling and remote surveillance systems played a key role in the collision, as did chronic understaffing and underfunding resulting from cutbacks enforced during Greece’s decade-long financial crisis.

The report also criticized the Greek authorities for flawed mapping of the crash site, a factor that it said resulted in the loss of “potentially vital information.”

Investigators added that an “enormous fireball” from the crash, which probably killed five to seven of the victims, may have been stoked by a “hitherto unknown fuel.” They called for further investigation into that.

Polls conducted in recent weeks showed that most people in the country were unhappy with the government’s handling of the disaster.

Many also suspect a cover-up of who was responsible — a charge that the government denies, accusing opposition parties of exploiting public sensitivities for political gain.

How have the authorities responded?

Greece has made some progress in improving railway safety since the crash. Greece’s infrastructure and transportation minister, Christos Staikouras, told Greek television on Thursday that modern signals and remote surveillance systems had been added along the entire Athens-to-Thessaloniki route after the accident, with work finishing by September 2023.

However, a cyclone later that month damaged the systems, leaving them not fully functional on “a significant part” of that route. He said that the damage would be repaired by the summer of 2026 and that Greece was working on an plan agreed upon with the European Commission to improve training for railway workers.

But the European Commission said in December that shortcomings persisted, including a failure to comply with a European Union rail safety directive from 2016. “Shortcomings are systemic and also stem from a lack of safety culture within the organizations involved,” it said.

The authorities have said that a judicial investigation is continuing into who may be responsible for the crash. The dozens under investigation so far are mostly railway officials.

The largest burden has fallen on one person: the station master, now 61, who is accused of the routing mistake that put the passenger train on the same line as the freight train.

He faces charges of endangering transportation safety and multiple counts of negligent homicide and bodily harm. But many in the country felt that he was scapegoated over systemic failures that were to blame for the tragedy.