Bus companies demand name of new concessionary be withdrawn

The general managers of some of the island’s bus companies filed a complaint on Tuesday with the registrar of companies for allowing the use of the name Cyprus Public Transport company by the new concessionary.

The newly-created CPT Cyprus Public Transport Services and Operations Limited, which was established by the MLKP consortium, will start running routes in Nicosia and Larnaca as of July 5, after it won the tenders for the next ten years.

Larnaca’s Zenon, Limassol’s Emel, Famagusta’s Osea, Paphos’ Osypa, Nicosia’s Osel and Intercity Buses had thus far held the public transport concessions but most of them lost out to MLKP consortium, comprising Malta Lines and Kapnos Airport Shuttle Services.

In their letter to the company registrar on Tuesday the transport companies said the name CPT was misleading, as “it implies a relation with the Republic of Cyprus, or a government service.

“We call on you to examine the objection immediately, and to revoke and withdraw the approval of the name ‘Cyprus Public Transport’,” they said.

They also requested the registrar make the CPT, whose registration number is HE 404634, remove the name from the buses in Nicosia and Larnaca set to start running on July 5.

The name is an “insult” to the history of public transport in Cyprus, which has been carried out for almost 100 years by the families of those filing the complaint, the companies 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.