ATHENS, April 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday vowed to speed up a nationwide train safety overhaul, two years after the country's worst rail tragedy left 57 dead.

Mitsotakis said a 15-month project was under way to carry out a "drastic" upgrade to train services safety and quality.

As part of the project, the prime minister told the cabinet that a train protection system known as ETCS will be operational on "every train" on Greece's main railway from Athens to Thessaloniki by September.

Fifty-seven people, most of them young students, died in February 2023 when a passenger train and a freight train collided in Tempe, central Greece, after being allowed to run on the same track.

The accident has sparked sweeping strikes and hundreds of protests in Greece and abroad this year.

It also brought about two unsuccessful votes of no confidence and suspicion -- reflected in opinion polls -- that the government tried to manipulate an investigation into the accident.

Earlier in April, a bomb exploded outside the offices of national train services operator Hellenic Train, without causing any injuries.

A trial into the accident is not expected before the end of the year.

Over 40 people have been prosecuted, including the local station master responsible for routing the trains.

Lawmakers have voted to refer a former junior minister to justice on possible misdemeanour charges for breach of duty in connection with the aftermath of the accident.

Opposition parties say Christos Triantopoulos, who was dispatched by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the scene after the accident, authorised the bulldozing of the crash site which led to the loss of vital evidence.

Triantopoulos denies any wrongdoing and says he was overseeing relief efforts.

Greece's intercity trains came under private management in 2017, when state-owned Greek rail traffic services operator TrainOSE was privatised and sold to Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, becoming Hellenic Train.