(ANSA-AFP) - ATHENS, MAR 22 - Intercity rail travel in Greece resumed on Wednesday for the first time since a head-on collision of two trains killed 57 people more than three weeks ago, operator Hellenic Train said. Trains connecting shipping port Piraeus to the capital's international airport, those between Athens and Chalcis, and two other local lines in the west Peloponnese have started running again, the company said.

Traffic on the line where the crash happened on February 28, the country's worst rail disaster, will not resume until April 1, acting Transport Minister Georgios Gerapetritis said. That line is the country's busiest, spanning 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Athens to the country's second-largest city of Thessaloniki in the north. The train disaster sparked weeks of angry and occasionally violent protests and piled pressure on the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ahead of elections due in May. (ANSA-AFP).