LARISSA, Greece, March 23, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Thirty-six people will face charges from Monday over Greece's worst train tragedy at one of the country's biggest trials in decades.

Over 350 witnesses are to be heard at the trial in the central city of Larissa, where a freight train and a passenger train collided on February 28, 2023 leaving 57 people dead.

They include survivors and family members of the victims, some of whom are believed to have burned to death after surviving the initial collision. Most of the dead were students returning from a carnival weekend.

The accused include the station master on duty on the night of the accident, other railway officials and two Italian former employees of the trains' parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.

The two trains had run on the same track for more than 10 minutes without triggering an alarm.

The disaster exposed the parlous state of the Greek railway network's safety precautions -- despite European Union grants for their modernisation, and repeated warnings from unions.

The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, Laura Kövesi, said the collision could have been avoided if the signalling system had been modernised in time using EU funds.

Train workers are staging a 24-hour strike Monday in what their union called "an act of collective remembrance, protest, and democratic vigilance".

Thirty-three of the defendants face criminal charges and risk prison sentences of up to life imprisonment.

None of the accused are currently in prison, though some have served time in pre-trial detention.

- Disaster still inspires protests -

Because of the number of participants, the trial has been moved to the lecture hall of Larissa university.

The accident - now commonly known as the "Tempe crime" -- sparked widespread anger in the country that has never subsided.

Tens of thousands of people joined protests nationwide to mark the accident's third anniversary last month.

The accused include the duty station master, Vassilios Samaras, who was arrested the day after the collision, and two other station masters who had left their posts before the end of their shift.

They are accused of having committed "acts dangerous to the safety of railway traffic (...) resulting in the death of a large number of people and serious bodily injuries to a large number of people," according to the indictment seen by AFP.

Managers and employees of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), the rail network operator, are also on trial, as well as two senior transport ministry officials and two Italian executives from Hellenic Train, a subsidiary of the Italian state's Ferrovie dello Stato.

No political official will be in the dock, fuelling resentment at a time when the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has already fiercely criticised for what is widely seen as a disastrous handling of the accident.

There are also claims by the opposition and civil society that officials are shielding those responsible.

Two former government members are under investigation, but neither has appeared before a court.

Valuable evidence was also lost when, just days after the collision, a bulldozer levelled the site.

"Up to now everything has been aimed at covering up the case," Pavlos Aslanidis, whose 26-year-old son died in the accident and who heads the Association of Victims' Families, told AFP.

"We are not heading toward a fair trial, but we will be there to fight (...) so that those responsible for the deaths of our loved ones go to prison," he added.

A demonstration is also planned for Monday's opening.