June 2010 target for modernised bus system

 

THE TARGET for the start of a “new era” for an upgraded and modernised public transport system is  June 1, 2010, Communications Minister Nicos Nicolaides has said.

The minister said he expected the concession agreements to be signed before the end of the year.

“We are trying to get the basic provisions of the agreements signed by December 3, so we can keep to the timeframe we set originally,” he said.

“It will then take a few months of preparation by both the bus companies and our side – some infrastructure work and other arrangements – so that by the first of June 2010 the agreements will come into effect, and the first evidence of the new era for public transport will start to appear” in the form of new and extended timetables.”

Speaking after briefing senior representatives of the main trade unions on the progress made towards concluding the negotiations, Nicolaides said that the majority of existing bus companies – around 60 per cent – had met the deadline for expressing an interest in providing services under the new system.

The doors remained open for those companies which did not meet the deadline, he said, because “everyone should know that there will no longer be public transport services outside of the [new] agreements”.

Nicolaides said that any company currently providing a service that decides not to participate in the new system will be able to apply for compensation as laid down under the relevant legislation.

The level of compensation would be lower than that available under the new agreements, he said.

 

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.