Red tape and ‘human error’ blamed for Italy train crash which killed 23: flawed system relied on station masters ringing each other 

A train crash which killed 23 people in southern Italy earlier this week is being blamed on European Union red tape which delayed the modernisation of the line and meant the drivers had to rely on an an antiquated and 'risky' system.

Two trains collided head-on on a single track line between the towns of Andria and Corato in the region of Puglia and it has emerged that there was no automatic alert or brake system in the area.

The farcical system relied on station masters telephoning one another to advise whether or not a train was running on the single track.

Railway police commander Giancarlo Conticchio said: 'Surely one of the two trains shouldn't have been there.'

A giant crane has been brought in to remove the mangled carriages and clear the site, in an olive grove, where the trains collided on Tuesday morning.

The death toll stands at 23 and includes a farmer who was killed by flying debris as he worked in a neighbouring field.

A train wagon is lifted as recovery operations continued a day after two commuter trains slammed into one another just before noon Tuesday in Puglia

But the prefect of nearby Barletta, Clara Minerva, said four other people were missing and it is thought their bodies may lie inside the wreckage.

Local officials said 51 people had been taken to hospital but 27 had since been released. 

Seven people remain in a critical condition, including a seven-year-old boy whose grandmother was killed.

Giovanni Gorgoni, head of Puglia's health department, said: 'Today is his 7th birthday. He doesn't know about his grandmother.'

The boy has a fever from an infection caused by shards of debris but has no broken bones.

Transport Minister Graziano Delrio told the Italian Parliament the particular single stretch of track between the towns of Andria and Corato did not have an automatic alert system that would engage if two trains were close by. 

Instead it relied on stationmasters phoning one another to advise of a departing train and proceed only if the receiving station confirmed the single track was free.

An excavator is used during recovery operations a day after two commuter trains slammed into one another in Puglia. It is feared that more bodies may be found in the wreckage

Mr Delrio said the phone system 'leaves an entirely human management and is among the least evolved and most risky ways of regulating railway circulation.' 

He said single rail tracks were not in themselves dangerous if 'advanced technology is applied'.

Mr Delrio said single tracks were used in all but 300 kilometres of the 3,000 kilometres of regional secondary railways in Italy. 

The Mayor of Andria, Nicola Giorgino, said long-delayed work was to begin within a few months to build a second track on the route.

A train wagon is lifted as recovery operations continued at the scene. The train company said the phone alert system had worked without incident for 51 years

The work was supposed to have begun years ago, and EU funding was secured when it was first proposed in 2007. 

The EU Regional Development Fund had approved 62 percent of the funding but it was never built.

EU officials said the delay was due to 'difficulties related to the acquisitions of permissions in the region.' 

Mr Delrio said the work was now due to begin before 2020, with the bidding process for the construction tender due to start on July 16.

Prosecutor Francesco Giannella said the delay in the track-doubling work would be part of the investigation. 

Rescuers work on the scene of a train accident after two commuter trains collided head-on near the town of Andria. The single track line was due to be replaced back in 2007

'We will investigate on the delays of the work on the line and on the deficiencies in the security system,' he told the ANSA news agency.

Yesterday distraught relatives of the dead queued up outside the morgue in nearby Bari and questioned the delays which had led to the crash.  

Giuseppe Colaleone, whose sister-in-law died in the crash, said: 'We went around all the hospitals, all day. 

'In the end we came here. My brother said she (his missing wife) had a necklace with the letter M on it, and a scar here, signs that could identify her. A nurse said they have probably identified her.'

The chief of the company, Ferrotramviaria, which ran the trains, Massimo Nitti, blamed the slow pace of improving the rail line on Italy's bureaucracy, saying the bidding process and legal recourses can eat up years and years.

He said that in the 10 years since the project had been approved, only 37 kilometres of second track had been laid and another eight kilometres was due to be completed by 2018.

'Unfortunately this is Italy,' he said.

But Mr Nitti defended the phone alert system, saying it had worked for 51 years without incident.

'Telephone consent is allowed, it's recognised. Obviously, it depends on the capacity of the line,' he said.

He said investigators had acquired all the telephone communications between the two stations and would get to the bottom of who was to blame.

'It's completely obvious that one of those trains shouldn't have been there,' he said.

Italian firefighters search among debris at the scene of a train accident after two commuter trains collided head-on near the town of Andria. Relatives of the victims are demanding justice