Intel agency in Greece joins police probes into continued vandalism of rail lines

Greece’s national intelligence agency (EYP) has joined ongoing police investigations into the continued thefts and vandalism of railroad infrastructure, with 22 serious incidents reports between March 1 and June 6.

The first date is a tragic milestone, given that a deadly train collision at the Tempi site, in north-central Greece, occurred before midnight on Feb. 28. The collision, attributed to human error and the lack of fail safe systems, cost the lives of at least 57 people.

The thefts and vandalism affect both the remote management and monitoring systems for the rail network – where installed – as well as overhead power lines. Ten of the incidents were reported in the greater Athens area, eight in the Thessaloniki area and four in the central city of Larissa, which is the rail hub nearest to where the deadly accident occurred.

One of the factors that contributed to the Tempi disaster on Feb. 28 was a malfunction on a specific track, attributed to hardware theft. A junior station master in Larissa then shifted a north-bound passenger train operated by Hellenic Train onto the tracks of a south-bound freight train and forgot to return it to the correct track.

Although the thefts and vandalism of rail infrastructure has long been attributed to so-called “metal hunters”, who particularly target copper, and who often operate out of nearly Roma camps, authorities said the recent incidents involve damaged materials that are not valuable as scrap, such as cut wires. The latter instances are viewed as efforts to sabotage various rail systems, the reason for the intelligence agency’s involvement.
On the prevention side, the management of state-owned and managed Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) has installed cameras along tracks and rail tunnels and begun the use of surveillance drones.