PEO issued an announcement regarding the decision of the Ministry of Transport on bus fares in the new school year.
The same announcement:
PEO expresses its disagreement with the upcoming increases in bus fares in the Nicosia and Larnaca provinces decided by the Cyprus Public Transport (CPT) company.
These increases are up to 50% in addition to the fee increases that were imposed in January 2022, just a year and a half ago.
While the government rightly declares on a theoretical level that it is a priority to increase the use of buses to deal with the traffic problem and by extension the reduction of pollutants in the environment, in practice by approving the increases, it will achieve the opposite results. The government, which has the responsibility to control the implementation of the terms of the contracts must answer whether these increases are justified.
These increases will directly affect students and pensioners who use the buses en masse as well as other groups of the population who come from low income strata and have no other choice for their transportation.
It will obviously also cause damage to rural residents since the price of auxiliary routes, which were free before January 2022, is also increasing. The cost of moving to and from the city will increase significantly, which further reinforces the abandonment of the countryside that the state is supposed to be trying in various ways to stop.
We call on the government to reconsider its positions on this important issue which is directly linked to traffic congestion and to cover all travel for pensioners, students and vulnerable groups free of charge. To also implement practical measures that will help to relieve traffic congestion.