RAIL workers in Greece staged a 24-hour strike today in protest over what they describe as a dangerous failure to modernise the Greek railway system and the lack of public investment in the network.

This comes days after the country’s deadliest rail crash in northern Greece which killed at least 43 people when a train from Athens to Thessaloniki carrying 350 passengers crashed head on into a freight train shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

Greek Railroad Workers Union president Yannis Nitsas said that eight rail workers were among the dead, including the two drivers of the freight train as well as the two drivers on board the passenger train.