On the one hand the impact, the day before yesterday in Sfendali, of a train with a tree leaning on the railway lines and on the power cables, which resulted in damage to the driver’s cabin and the traffic disruption, and on the other hand , the public debate that followed which -reasonably- created concern in public opinion, the OSE decided to speed up the taking of immediate measures that it had already planned with the aim of preventing similar incidents in the future as well to prevent than to generally the safety of passengers and vehicles.
More specifically, the president of OSE, Mr. Giannos Grammatidis, made the following announcement:
“In collaboration with the Managing Director of the OSE, Mr. Panagiotis Terezakis, we are today speeding up the establishment of a new Department of Vegetation and Environment in the Organization whose mission is the planning, procedures and implementation of the clearing of native vegetation and the felling of trees along the entire railway network of the country.In addition, the new Directorate will be responsible for the overall reduction of the Organization’s environmental footprint.It is noted that the work to clear trees and to cut down until today belonged to the competence of the Line Management. Consequently, with this decision we achieve autonomy with the aim of improving efficiency and increasing response speed.
“The new management will report directly to the CEO”
The new Directorate, which will report directly to the CEO, will consist of two Services, the Green Service and the Environmental Service, headed by an agronomist and an environmentalist respectively. A related proposal will be presented for approval at the next meeting of the OSE Board of Directors, next Thursday, 19 September 2024.”
Mr. Grammatidis also added that “the Organization is planning the establishment of an independent and overriding right of the OSE and will already propose cutting down trees within the expropriated railway corridors on both sides of the lines and outside them, i.e. also on lands, regardless of public or private use or forest restrictions and always along its active, suspended and decommissioned network for reasons of not obstructing public transport, safety of the traveling public, to avoid fires and pollution of the environment.”
“In this way, the Organization accelerates the taking of these measures for the more rational management of respective issues, bypassing labyrinthine responsibilities that only cause delays and, finally, for the protection of the public interest,” said Mr. Grammatidis concluded.