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NO TRAINS, NO PLANES AND HUGE PROTESTS: STRIKE BRINGS GREECE TO A
HALT  
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Niki Kitsantonis
February 28, 2025
New York Times
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_ Two years after the country’s deadliest rail disaster, many are
still demanding greater safety and accountability. _

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the Greek capital on
Friday on the anniversary of the country’s deadliest rail disaster.
A small group of demonstrators clashed with riot police as part of a
strike that disrupted travel nationwide., Yannis Kolesidis/EPA, via
Shutterstock

 

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
train disaster
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The 24-hour walkout, called by Greece’s two main labor unions, was
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
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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 did the strike entail?

Rallies took 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.

The strike involved public- and private-sector workers. A police
official estimated that the Athens protest attracted at least 180,000
people, the largest demonstration in the Greek capital in years.

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.

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

At the rally in Athens, many expressed anger and frustration.

“We need to send them a message,” said Nikolas Κatsambanis, 19, a
student of music production, referring to Greece’s politicians.
“They lie through their teeth,” he said, adding that he no longer
travels by train, having known one of the crash survivors. “My best
friend’s sister was in the seventh car, and she’s still in
shock.”

Niki Antypa, 68, said that she used to take “nice trips” by train
but was now also scared to travel, even on public transit. “They
have no control of the railways,” she said, accusing the authorities
of scrambling to hide evidence about the state of the rail network
after the crash.

What happened in the train accident?

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

The site of the crash two years ago, after a passenger train collided
with a freight train, killing 57 people. Angelos Tzortzinis for The
New York Times

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
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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 had resulted in the loss of
“potentially vital information.”

How have the authorities responded?

Greece has made some progress in improving railway safety since the
crash. The 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.

But a cyclone then damaged the systems, leaving them not fully
functional on “a significant part” of that route, Mr. Staikouras
said.

He said the damage would be repaired by summer 2026 and that Greece
was working on an plan agreed upon with the European Commission to
improve training for railway workers.

Flowers and banners to remember victims at the 2023 train crash site,
near Tempe, Greece, on Thursday.Credit...Sakis Mitrolidis/Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images

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

How did the public respond to the strike?

The demonstration in Athens started peacefully, with families pushing
children in strollers and retirees joining students on the streets of
the capital, holding banners calling for “justice” and “the
guilty to pay.”

Selini Vazeou, 20, who is studying to be a teacher, said she felt
compelled to attend the rally even though she feared that nothing
would change. “I don’t believe our voice will be heard,” she
said. “They always find a way to cover things up and keep their
jobs,” she said of the government.

On the fringes of the protest, a group of elementary schoolchildren
with their parents and teachers held a banner that read, “Justice
now.” They chanted, “We’ll never forget the crime,” and “The
new generation will avenge you.”

Violence erupted in the early afternoon after a few hundred hooded
youths broke away from the main protest and threw firebombs and chunks
of paving stone at police officers, who responded by firing tear gas.
The police arrested 41 people.

Some who broke away from the main Athens protest clashed with riot
police officers who responded with tear gas.Credit...Yannis
Kolesidis/EPA, via Shutterstock

As a helicopter circled overhead, people ran through the streets to
escape the acrid smoke while emergency workers carried a woman who was
struggling to breathe out of the fray.

Protesters chanted “Murderers!” in relation to the Greek
authorities, as elite presidential guards were moved from their
cubicles into the Parliament building, where some members of the
public also took refuge.

Others cried, “I have no oxygen,” the last words one of the train
passengers uttered in a call to emergency services that has gone viral
on Greek social media in recent days.

Athina Vasiloglou, 20, a photography student, said the Tempe disaster
encapsulated all that is wrong with the Greek state — “all the
failings, all the dysfunction, wrapped up within one tragic
incident.”

Stelios Deligiannis, 23, a sound engineer, said he used to travel on
the Athens-Thessaloniki rail route to visit friends in the northern
port city.

He said he had little hope of significant change — “the country
and the state don’t inspire us to be positive” — but believed
that justice will eventually prevail. “The truth can’t be hidden
forever,” he said.

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_NIKI KITSANTONIS is a freelance correspondent for The New York Times
based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years,
including more than a decade of coverage for The Times of the
country’s financial, political and refugee crises, as well as
broader social changes. An Oxford graduate, she is a contributor to
the BBC World Service and was formerly the managing editor for the
Kathimerini newspaper’s English edition._

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* Greece
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* general strike
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* demonstrations
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* Rail
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