Tempi Train Crash

Just before midnight on 28 February 2023, a passenger train traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train near the Tempi valley in Thessaly, in the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history. The passenger train, carrying more than 350 people, many of them university students returning after a long holiday weekend, had been mistakenly sent onto the same track as the oncoming freight train by the stationmaster at Larissa. The collision and the fire that followed killed 57 people and injured dozens more. Investigations revealed serious failures in Greece's railway system, including the lack of working remote signaling and automatic safety systems, despite years of delays in contracts to install them. The transport minister resigned, and the stationmaster and other officials were charged. Mass protests took place in 2023 and again in early 2025, when hundreds of thousands demanded justice, accusing the authorities of a cover-up. Questions about the causes of the fire and the handling of the crash site remain at the center of ongoing investigations and legal proceedings.