Newly formed council aims to improve public transport and quality of life

Cooperation between the relevant stakeholders will contribute to better regulation of public transport and upgrade the quality of life for locals, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeadis said on Friday, following the conclusion of the first meeting of the newly established Transport Council.

“We look forward to a good and constructive cooperation, exchange of views and experiences and the development of new strategies aimed at implementing projects that will bring results,” Vafeadis said in a statement after the meeting.

The Transport Council, which was established following a decision of the Council of Ministers on July 12, 2023.

The Transport Council has a consultative character, aims to exchange views and recommendations on the management of challenges in the transport sector.

The Council is composed of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Keve), the Federation of Employers and Industrialists (Oev), the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (Etek), the University of Cyprus, the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) and the Association of Transport Engineers.

In a statement to the media after the session, Vafeadis said: “We have gathered here private knowledge, academic knowledge and technical knowledge from the NTC, in an effort to cooperate and exchange views, so that we can better regulate the issue of public transport, help to decongest the roads, reduce pollution and essentially, at the end of the day, achieve an improvement in the quality of life of our compatriots. We look forward to a good and constructive cooperation, exchanging views, sharing experiences, drawing up new strategies aimed at implementing projects that will bring results. I would like to thank everyone who has participated today, and I look forward to our future cooperation,” Vafeadis said.

In a statement, Keve secretary-general Marios Tsiakkis said there are indeed serious problems regarding the movement of locals and businesses.

“We have expressed our commitment to support this effort both with suggestions and with expertise from experts. We said that there should be a prioritisation, in our view, of the pressing problems. Above all, we must start with those that plague many of our fellow citizens to bring solutions and for them to feel the results of this effort,” Tsiakkis stressed.

“It is a complex and difficult issue, our success will be judged by how effective we will be and how soon,” Tsiakkis added.

For his part, the Vice President of Etek Andreas Theodotou noted that traffic is a problem that afflicts everyone on a daily basis as well as the environmental burden.

“The hours we lose every day in traffic are endless. Let’s not forget the environmental burden we have with climate change. We are ready to help the Minister along with the other agencies, the other chambers, the universities, and we hope soon to have real results on this important problem,” he concluded.