- Why are we paying again to restore damage caused by Daniel when it had already been repaired by December 2023?
- After carrying out the repairs and requesting a “safety approval,” why did OSE consider the line safe and then assign the project to METKA with a long delay?
- We sent five questions to Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis, but he only answered three.
- New norms: The ministry is allocating €173.5 million yet providing no explanation about the work to be carried out.
- There is silence regarding the role of P. Terezakis and the awarding of study contracts to the firm “LDK Consulting Engineers,” where Mr. Terezakis worked before moving to OSE.
By Aris Chatzigeorgiou
The government is staging a “theater of the absurd,” devoid of accountability, over the restoration projects for the damage caused by Storm Daniel in Thessaly 28 months ago. Today, Data Journalists are focusing their investigation on the 40 kilometers of railway line north of Domokos. This line was damaged but subsequently restored by OSE, who requested a “Safety Approval.” Nevertheless, we are paying for the same work again through a mega-contract worth €173.5 million that was awarded without a tender and after an enormous delay.
There has never been a detailed briefing for this specific project, only vague references to strengthening resilience to the climate crisis. METKA was assigned the project last April at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport with much fanfare, in the presence of local MPs, including Christos Triantopoulos, who is under judicial investigation for his role in the landfill cover-up in Tempi. Four contracts were signed at that time, totaling €450 million. In addition to the Domokos–Krannonas section, railway work was to be carried out on the Palaiofarsalos–Kalambaka and Larissa–Volos sections. Another contract was signed with Alstom for restoring the electronic traffic management systems.
However, the Domokos–Krannonas contract had one distinctive feature compared to the other three.
OSE had already carried out work independently and restored train traffic on both the up line (toward Thessaloniki) and the down line.
According to available information, more specifically:
- Train traffic on one of the two tracks, the down line toward Athens, was restored after three months, in early December 2023, following works carried out by OSE itself.
- In February 2024, OSE requested Safety Approval from the Railway Regulatory Authority (RAS) for the restored section, which the RAS granted in June.
- Subsequently, OSE restored the up line and requested a safety approval for that section in November 2024.
- The railway embankment was restored along the entire double-track section in accordance with OSE’s Technical Guidelines and the National Technical Specifications (ETEP) of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
- Based on the restoration work and subsequent technical assessments, electric trains could operate at the same speeds as before the damage caused by Daniel (up to 160 km/h) once again. In the interim, only diesel-powered trains had been running.
- OSE carried out all of the above through in-house contracts, and Evangelos Christogiannis, an OSE executive who was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer by the current leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in September 2025, gave the final sign-off (“all clear”) on the applications at the time (January 2025).
- And while OSE was already working on—and had fully restored—the line by January 2025, four months later came the triumphant announcements of major restoration projects, including the contract with METKA for the Domokos–Krannonas section (just before Larissa), funded by the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
- From that point on, Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis proclaimed at every opportunity that the projects would proceed at “express pace” so that they would be completed by the summer of 2026 and train traffic would be “operating safely.” However, he never provided a detailed explanation of what these works might involve, despite the fact that the line had already been restored and deemed safe by OSE.
- Data Journalists decided to revisit the issue and seek clarifications from Mr. Kyranakis himself. He toured Thessaly over the summer and spoke about the rapid progress of the work. Our investigation was triggered by two incidents that occurred after the summer of 2025:
- In September, five months after the initial €166.7 million contract was signed for the same project, the first supplementary contract was signed for an additional €6.8 million, pushing the cost even higher.
- In early December, train traffic was suspended for 24 hours due to rainfall causing water levels to rise once again.
On December 17, 2025, we submitted five questions to the office of K. Kyranakis and received answers to three of them one week later:
Question: When the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport visited Thessaly in July 2025 for an on-site inspection, he spoke of the “railway restoration works” underway, which were being carried out “in strict adherence to the schedule.” The contract for the Domokos–Krannonas section was signed on April 28, 2025, for €166.7 million. However, documents published on Diavgeia show that, in January 2025, OSE had already requested an update to the Safety Approval from RAS for the up line Domokos–Palaiofarsalos section. OSE had already received this approval in June and November 2024 for the other sections. Assuming OSE deems the entire line safe, what work will be carried out under the €166.7 million contract?
Answer: The section of the line from Agios Stefanos to Xyniada to Mezourlo had been excluded from the Safety Approval due to significant changes in the subsystems caused by extreme weather. After completing temporary restoration work, OSE requested an update to include these sections in the Safety Approval.
The €166.7 million contract involves permanent restoration work and infrastructure resilience reinforcement, including the construction of new engineering structures and raising the railway line to handle severe weather events effectively in the future.
Question: Although some documents refer to climate resilience, the specific scope of the work to be carried out under this contract was not presented in detail. Why, then, was train traffic suspended for 24 hours following the rainfall on December 6, 2025?
Answer: The work included in this contract aims to strengthen the resilience of the railway infrastructure. However, the work is still in progress and has not yet been completed. During the severe weather on December 6, 2025, no damage was detected to the engineering structures or infrastructure. The 24-hour suspension of train traffic was decided as a precautionary safety measure in accordance with the prescribed protocols. After inspecting the area via the monitoring system and verifying that the water levels had receded, the line was returned to service.
Question: Why did it take so long to sign contracts such as the one for Domokos–Krannonas when all the prior approval documents from 2024 referenced the urgent need to execute works related to restoring the railway infrastructure in areas under a state of civil protection emergency? The corresponding enabling law, 5049, was passed in September 2023.
Answer: The delay in signing contracts, such as the one for the Domokos–Krannonas section, was not due to a lack of priority. Rather, it was due to the need to secure the required funding. Although the work was classified as urgent, there was initially no fully secured financing for the entire project. During this period, all the necessary technical and administrative actions were carried out, and appropriate funding sources were sought. The process was completed when the project was included in the Recovery and Resilience Fund, which enabled the safe and definitive signing of the contracts.
Some comments, before we present the questions that went unanswered:
- Clearly, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport does not feel obligated to provide a more detailed description of the work requiring the staggering sum of €173.5 million (unless new supplementary contracts arise) for just 40 kilometers of railway line, which amounts to over €4.3 million per kilometer.
- As you will read below, a study was conducted before the work began, and a quantitative record of the interventions to be carried out certainly exists. For example, raising the railway line over several kilometers so that water does not flow over it, or implementing flood control and drainage works so that water is channeled away and does not damage the railway infrastructure. Public works have been carried out in Greece for decades, and responsible ministers have always been willing to provide such details, especially when large sums of money are involved. The current government’s secrecy is incomprehensible, particularly given that one of its officials, K. Kyranakis, appears on television daily commenting on everything.
- Despite the secrecy, Mr. Kyranakis’s response about the reason for the delay in signing the contracts is somewhat revealing, particularly for those who recall the statements made in September 2023 following the natural disasters. “Although the work was classified as urgent, there was initially no fully secured financing scheme for the entire project,” the Deputy Minister of Transport now admits. It is worth recalling what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time:
On September 8, 2023, Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Thessaly by helicopter. Roads in the area were blocked by floodwaters rather than tractor barricades. He spoke with farmers whose livelihoods had been devastated by the floods. “I understand the anger and rage. I have never hidden; I am always here in difficult times. We will find the money, whether it comes from national or European resources. There will be—let me stress this—no issue of funding. The issue is the rapid implementation of the projects. I say this because I know personally how difficult it is when such extreme events occur. But we are in a position—I repeat—to manage it,” the Prime Minister said. He went on to add, “We will do whatever is necessary. The Greek economy is now strong enough to withstand such a disaster. I will mobilize every available European resource so that we can secure additional support, first and foremost to cover the compensation needs of households. Then, of course, there is the difficult and costly issue of restoring infrastructure, whether we are talking about roads, networks, dams, or new and old projects that need repairs.”
- On September 12, 2023, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Ursula von der Leyen in Strasbourg. Von der Leyen expressed solidarity with Greece and said that Europe was ready to mobilize €2.2 billion in resources from previous programming period funds, including the EU Cohesion Funds, the European Solidarity Fund, and the Common Agricultural Policy. Were these promises merely words, or were the funds ultimately diverted elsewhere, such as to OPEKEPE?
And two unanswered questions
One of the questions that Mr. Kyranakis refused to answer concerns the very preparation of the projects, which was supposedly taking place from September 2023 until the signing of the contracts in April 2025.
One of the “necessary technical and administrative actions” reflected in government decisions was the technical studies commissioned by OSE for the planned work. It is noted there that Panagiotis Terezakis, the then-CEO of OSE, commissioned a study for one of these projects from the firm “LDK Consulting Engineers” in February 2024.
However, this is the same firm where Mr. Terezakis worked until March 2023. LDK signed two contracts with OSE in 2022, one year before the Tempi disaster. The first contract aimed “to address technical and operational issues of exceptional importance for the smooth operation of the organization’s passenger and freight rail transport and to provide primarily maintenance-related advisory and support services for the railway network.” The second contract involved the “provision of technical consultancy services in the management of infrastructure, signaling, remote control, electromechanical installations, etc.” —the same areas that failed during the Tempi tragedy. As part of the second contract, LDK was explicitly required to place Panagiotis Terezakis at OSE. Despite paying the consulting firm €84,000, OSE failed to address the issues, as tragically became evident.
Indeed, on June 11, 2024, Data Journalists reported on “conflicts of interest” in Tempi—that is, individuals involved in the tragedy who should not have been—and specifically referenced P. Terezakis. They noted that, before assuming leadership of OSE, he was paid to provide safety-related advice through a contractor company.
Indeed, Mr. Terezakis’s role as a contract consultant became so critical that he was later accused of both the lost video recordings (the trial is still ongoing) and the manipulated conversations between drivers and stationmasters that were leaked to the media within the first 24 hours after the accident.
In conclusion, Mr. Terezakis joined OSE in 2022 through the firm LDK. As CEO, he commissioned the same company in February 2024 to conduct a study on one of the restoration projects for damage caused by the storm Daniel. OSE paid LDK €113,621.20 for the study, which was delivered in June 2024. This study, along with others commissioned from consulting firms, theoretically formed the basis for the contracts signed in April 2025. However, Mr. Kyranakis provides no further details about the work to be carried out. Based on all of the above, we have the following question:
- To prepare for the tendering of the restoration works caused by Storms Daniel and Elias, the then-CEO of OSE, P. Terezakis, signed a series of assignments to technical consultants in February 2024. Among these consultants was LDK Consulting Engineers S.A., where Mr. Terezakis had worked prior to taking over OSE in March 2023. Was this assignment legal and ethical?
We did not receive a response from the Deputy Minister. Instead, his office advised us to direct our question to the former CEO. Mr. Terezakis was removed from OSE in September 2025, though rumors persist that he remains involved in railway projects through private entities.
In closing, it is worth noting that Mr. Terezakis’s successor at OSE, current CEO Christos Palios, commissioned the same firm, LDK, in October 2025 for another contract titled “Provision of Specialized Consultant Services for the HEPOS Service (Hellenic Positioning System).” K. Kyranakis has promoted this system since taking office at the Ministry of Transport, claiming that it would prevent train collisions. However, it was revealed last week that the system will also be used to record Hellenic Train’s schedules in order to collect state subsidies monthly instead of every six months.
Another unanswered question was the following: “Why was it necessary in September 2025 to sign a supplementary contract and for the contractor of this project to receive an additional €6.8 million — roughly equivalent to the 4% discount they offered to be selected for this section?” We were informed by Mr. Kyranakis’s office that there is currently no answer to this question, even a week after submission, and that we would have to wait longer.
