Ex-transport ministers appear before parliamentary committee

The parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee on Monday summoned three former ministers of infrastructure and transport – Kostas A. Karamanlis, Christos Spritzis and Michalis Chrysochoidis – as well as the minister of state, responsible for infrastructure and transport issues, Giorgos Gerapetritis, to discus delays in the implementation of Contract 717 for the automatic operation and signalling of the railway network.

Failure to implement the contract, which has also been probed by the European Commission as it provided funding with European resources, left the network unprotected from human error and is therefore seen as critical in the massive train collision on February 28 near Tempe that killed 57 people.

Monday’s meeting was expected to begin by discussing procedural issues.