Tender for 750 new buses to halt as tender considered to be “problematic”

The tender for the procurement of 750 city buses was characterized as “problematic” during the the speech of the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Kostas Karamanlis, earlier today in the Parliament.

“As the Prime Minister said yesterday -in the framework of the implementation of a Strategic Plan for Electric Mobility in major cities and small islands of the country, our primary objective is the renewal of the means of public transport with urban electric buses. But with transparency and with the avoidance of problematic tender procedures. With respect to public money” the Minister stated during his address about Transport.

Grim signs for urban transport

Mr. Karamanlis described a discouraging image of the current state of urban transport in Athens and Thessaloniki, for which, as he added, there must be rationalization: “In Athens there is a dramatic reduction of the buses fleet and routes, a degradation of the services as well as increases in the prices of tickets.

In Thessaloniki, the picture is even worse. Today there are no more than 240-260 buses available for the second largest city of Greece. It’s dramatic.

Fleet reduction, virtual itineraries, collapse of the telematics system and a dramatic drop in the revenues.

We have a nationalized organization that receives a 200% subsidy while the European norm is 40-60%!

Therefore, we are proceeding immediately to a crisis management plan in order to avoid the collapse of OASTH (i.e.the public transport organization of Thessaloniki).

Neither miracles can happen nor can we return to the past. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done.”

Mr. Karamanlis also blamed the European Commission as he said that “it approved the one and only nationalization EU-wide”.

He announced the change of administration and the utilization of “capable OASTH executives, without ‘party blinkers’ as it happened before with SYRIZA”.

He also revealed that mergers of organizations with very similar jurisdiction that are supervised by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, are being considered.

He also admitted that the situation today in Athens Metro and the railways is difficult.

The priorities

Investments in logistics and combined Transport will play a prime role for the new leadership of the Ministry in order to make Piraeus, the ports of the North, and especially of Thessaloniki, strategic entry points.

The rail network will extend the sea corridor connecting the Asian markets with Piraeus to a land transport corridor towards Central Europe.
By strengthening the ports in the North the logisctics sector in Northern Greece is expected to be upgraded considerably.

With regard to sea airports Mr. Karamanlis said that the aim is to revise the legislative framework as it does not facilitate their development.