Wary bus drivers receive details of transport overhaul

RURAL BUS drivers yesterday received a copy of the Communications Ministry’s controversial proposal for overhauling the public transport system.

The government bill aims to gradually increase the number of buses to 1,200, replace older vehicles, increase the number of routes inside towns, set up a night-bus service catering for both tourists and locals, and have more frequent connections between rural areas and urban centres. The upgrade plan will start on September 1 and is expected to be completed over three years.

Under the proposal, which aims to tweak the island’s bus services, six bus companies would be established to replace the some 220 companies currently in existence. Five of these would cover each of the districts (Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos, Famagusta), the sixth company would handle interurban routes.

A number of individual bus owners would also be allowed to operate. Communications and Works Minister Nicos Nicolaides said yesterday that the interurban rides would cost €3.

The proposed changes initially received a very hostile reaction from rural bus drivers, many of whom fear they will be run out of business. But the drivers, who earlier this week threatened to block off the Presidential Palace in protest, have agreed to stand down and enter into a dialogue with the Communications Ministry.

The hard bargaining is expected to begin tomorrow between the ministry and the bus drivers, who are demanding compensation and remuneration guarantees.

In a related development, Nicolaides told newsmen yesterday that the Communications and Works Ministry would sign various public transport contracts worth more than €100 million by the end of the year.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.