Bus

The long-suffering tender for the supply of new buses to renew the aging fleet of the transport companies of Athens and Thessaloniki (OASA and OASTH) is moving forward.

As the year draws to a close, transport services face adjustments, with some bus operators in Bulgaria suspending travel from December 31st afternoon until midday on January 1st. However, in anticipation of increased passenger demand on December 30, certain operators have arranged additional buses to accommodate travelers.

An extra budget of 18.3 million euros for Greece's urban buses and intercity coaches (KTEL) was announced by Transport and Infrastructure Minister Christos Staikouras on Friday.

This sizable subsidy also concerns local coach operators in the country's remote regions, he added, speaking at the 29th KTEL annual convention in the city of Lamia, central Greece.

The Federation of Hellenic Associations of Travel & Tourist Agencies (FEDHATTA) has welcomed measures announced by the Municipality of Athens regarding the effort to decongest the center of Athens by regulating the movement of tourist buses on main roads. 

A tourist bus from Bulgaria was completely destroyed on Thursday by fire that broke out while travelling on a secondary road in the region of Serres, in northern Greece. 

The driver immediately stopped the bus and passengers disembarked safely, state run broadcaster ERT reported. It was not immediately lear what caused the fire. 

The continuing work stoppages in public transport (always at the beginning of the shift) achieve nothing more than unnecessarily disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of commuters in Attica - especially those who are most in need of the buses and trolley buses.

Bus and trolleybus workers will stage a new work stoppage on Tuesday, in continuation of their demand for safe and quality public transport. 

The work stoppage will last from the start of the shift until 8.30 a.m. and from 10 p.m. until the end of the shift. 

After being forced to scale down production during the pandemic due to a slump in demand for airport buses, the Maribor-based commercial vehicle manufacturer TAM-Europe is back in business in global markets this year. It has recently supplied ten airport buses to Saudi Arabia.

Bus and trolleybus workers will stage a new work stoppage for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, demanding safe and quality public transport. 

The work stoppage will last from the start of the shift until 9 a.m. and from 9 p.m. until the end of the shift. 

Buses will run normally on the routes assigned to the privately operated KTEL intercity buses. 

Greece has the oldest fleet of passenger cars in the European Union, with an average age of 17 years, when the EU average is 12 years, according to data published by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) up to the year 2021.

Estonia has the second oldest passenger car fleet (16.8 years) followed by the Czech Republic (15.6).