Bill for ailing railway company OSE coming on April 28

A Transport Ministry bill aiming to overhaul Greece’s rail system is expected to be debated in a ministerial council on April 28 before advancing to Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said  at the 10th Delphi Economic Forum.

The bill is based on recommendations from National Organization for the Investigation of Air and Rail Accidents (EODASAM) and repeated warnings by the European Commission which has called on Greece to comply with the bloc’s directive for railway safety.

Hatzidakis said the bill foresees the implementation of the model used previously for public power utility PPC, which is a listed company and able to attract private investors.

He said the state of Greek railway operator OSE as “unacceptable.”

“The Tempe [train] tragedy brought this situation at the forefront. We have taken initiatives, but we will go much faster and more decisively with a bill that will be discussed in the cabinet on April 28 and that will come to respond to the proposals of the European Commission and EODASAM both in terms of train safety and in terms of how OSE will operate,” he said at the Forum.

As Kathimerini previously reported, the bill will likely include immediate measures to recruit and retrain staff, increase funding, and partner with a major European company for network maintenance, all aimed at a much-needed rail system relaunch.

In a letter of notice sent to Greece in December 2024, the European Commission called on the government to implement a directive which would, among others, revise the role of national safety authorities and reallocate responsibilities between them and the European Union Agency for Railways.

“There have been longstanding shortcomings in the implementation of a relevant directive since its entry into force. The failings are dubbed as systemic that stem from a lack of safety culture within the organizations involved,” the Commission said.

The recommendations and warning came after a freight train and a passenger train barreled toward each other at high speeds on the same track late night on February 28, 2023, killing 57 passengers and injuring dozens.

Source: pagenews.gr