The silent inexistence

For years, the unionists of state-owned Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) have been warning about the lack of safety on the railway network. Was anyone listening? They were right, but unfortunately it has become very difficult to tell when unionism is serious and when it is partisan, and because it is usually the latter, we close our ears. There is an obvious issue of credibility here, as everywhere else in our society.

Those who should have listened are OSE’s board of directors, since the company is responsible for managing and maintaining the rail infrastructure. Where are they? For all the commotion that has followed the deadly accident at Tempe, we have yet to learn their names, those of the general manager, the heads of the company. We haven’t seen the organizational chart either. But the accident happened on their shift and, from what I’ve learned in my job, when “incidents” happen, the management is the first to come out and speak. Unless this is only true when there is an opportunity for positive promotion. Now, we have seen all sorts of people coming out to speak, except for those who are in charge of the company, by law.

There should at least have been an announcement from the board immediately after the accident, even just as a formality. Its absence is an implicit admission that politicians were really in charge of OSE and that the president and all other executives were unqualified party appointees. As is usually the case at all state-run companies. This is also confirmed by the government’s haste to replace OSE’s administration. I hope I’m wrong, and if this is the case I will apologize.

Those who should have listened are OSE’s board of directors, since the company is responsible for managing and maintaining the rail infrastructure. Where are they?

The sad state of OSE is a long-standing problem and it would be interesting to know how many administrations have been appointed in recent years, and what their qualifications were. It would also be useful to know how many years the contracts for installing security systems were delayed. We are now hounding the stationmasters who were working that night – and rightly so – but those who appointed them to those positions and those who appointed those who appointed them are more responsible. The people who are demonstrating in the streets have sensed this too.

It would also be wrong to stop all train services. The right thing to do is to repair the tracks immediately and get the railways running as soon as possible – at least the commercial trains, which are a key link in the smooth operation of the economy. The incident at Tempe was a tragedy but it is no reason to paralyze the network, nor can it remain idle until the new security systems are in place. It should start operating as before, but with more attention.

Will this tragedy teach us anything? It depends. The timing of the accident, just a few months before the elections, means that all the emphasis was on managing the message, which does not bode well. The mature behavior of thousands of citizens who demonstrated on Wednesday may teach our political leaders something.