Private sector employee. Resident of Attica. Her partner, Vasilis, lost his life at Tempi.
I first took the train when I went to Thessaloniki in 1998, when I moved there for a year. During that period, I actually went back and forth quite often. Later, when I returned to Athens, there was a very long stretch when I didn’t take it. And I started using it again from 2016 onwards, when Vasilis and I got back together.
I’ve always loved travelling by train. I found it a very romantic means of transport. I loved the sound of the train, the fact that you pass by and see landscapes… Back then it wasn’t as modernised as it is now. It was more old-fashioned. It was nice. I dreamed of train journeys. I loved reading books with trains in them. I imagined taking trips, interrailing — I would even imagined the Trans-Siberian. It’s one of the modes of transport I really loved. For taking long journeys and enjoying the ride.
The train was essentially also the means of connection between Vasilis and me. Because he would come to Athens by train every two to three weeks. At first, I also went up more often, but from the second or third year onwards, he was mainly the one who came, and since he came for weekends, he never took the car. He found the train both more convenient and more comfortable. He would leave Thessaloniki on Friday afternoon and arrive here at 11 or 12 at night. On Sunday afternoon, he would go back up to Thessaloniki. Only when he was staying for more days would he take the car.
We had met in 1998, when I went to Thessaloniki, because our parents were business associates and friends. I didn’t know anyone in Thessaloniki, so our parents arranged for someone to be there, for me to have a contact. That’s how we met — we had a mini relationship back then. It didn’t last because we were young, and then we found each other again in 2016.
Since I lost Vasilis at Tempi, I no longer use that particular train. I use the suburban rail and the metro, and that’s out of necessity for financial reasons, to get to work. And if I could avoid even that, I would. In the first period after the crash, for quite a while, I didn’t use it at all
I'm very afraid. I think that all those years we were using it, every trip we were essentially playing Russian roulette with our lives. And when I think that before 2016, for five years, my sister used it almost every two weeks… She would also leave on Friday and come back on Sunday, because her husband is in Thessaloniki. She says the same thing today.
That doesn’t necessarily ruin the good memories of the train. There are so many moments I’ve shared on it, and it hasn’t destroyed them for me. What has been ruined is that I have no trust in the mode of transport, and that all that time I was using it without knowing what I was doing.
I will never get on a train again. And because I’ve used trains in other countries too –in France, for example, the TGV, which is much more modern– I wouldn’t even consider that. I’m far too afraid. And the more I think that the most modern ones have much higher speeds, no matter how safe they are, I’m never getting on a train again.
A few days after the crash, my mother was supposed to go up to my sister in Thessaloniki. In fact, Vasilis had booked the ticket for her, and of course she didn’t go afterwards — she went by plane instead. When she was about to return to Athens, she told me, “I’ll come back by train,” and we actually had an argument about it. I said to her, “Really, you’re going to get on a train after everything that’s happened?”. And she said, “Lightning never strikes the same place twice. So, I’ll get on.” And she did get on.
She told me that when she was passing through Tempi, she was very agitated. Around that period, trains always sounded their horns when passing the site. Otherwise, she said the journey was pleasant. She didn’t think about the rest of it, I suppose.
What I think is that even now, as we speak, there hasn’t been any real improvement. Nothing has changed. They haven’t actually fixed anything. It’s still operating the same way as before. I just think people are a little more alert at that time, keeping an eye on things, but in reality, nothing has changed.