Train passengers increasingly frustrated with services

Passengers connected Greece’s obstruction web proceed to look regular frustrations, with delays ranking among their astir predominant complaints, according to the Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS).

In its yearly enactment report, which has been forwarded to the European Union Agency for Railways, RAS said complaints roseate sharply past year, noting that 2,931 ceremonial complaints were submitted to Italian-owned relation Hellenic Train successful 2024, up from 2,573 successful 2023. 

These covered 5,476 cases, including requests for compensation and reports of delays, instrumentality failures, and mediocre staff behaviour and cleanliness. 

Regional routes, including Piraeus–Kiato and Athens–Halkida, attracted the highest stock of complaints astatine 36.4%, followed by intercity services astatine 32.9%. The engaged Athens–Thessaloniki enactment led among intercity complaints, while those connected the Piraeus–Airport way surged astir 29% year-on-year, signaling worsening conditions for commuters.

Compensation claims topped the database of complaints successful 2024, making up 19.7% of the total, mostly for summons refunds owed to delays. Issues related to tickets and passes ranked 2nd with 14%, followed by delays astatine 13.2%. Technical failures accounted for 3.3%.

Passenger trips besides increased, however, reaching 14.03 cardinal tickets compared with 12.8 cardinal successful 2023, a year that was marked by the deadly Tempe obstruction catastrophe and terrible storm harm that disrupted hundreds of kilometers of track. RAS noted that the difficulties of 2023 weighed connected rider assurance and forced slower train operations.