Cyprus Public Transport on Thursday dismissed a report into its service released by the audit office a day prior which said that 63 per cent of survey participants would not choose to use the bus again, saying that it has “already moved on” from the matter.
It did stress that it takes the report’s findings “seriously”, adding that “the report identifies shortcomings in service and areas for improvement”, which it “accepts”.
However, it said, “what [Cyprus Public Transport] does not support is the overall conclusion that some headlines have drawn from it”, stressing that “nothing in the report shows a service in crisis”.
The 63-per-cent figure, it said, “reflects the responses of 110 audit office employees who travelled by bus as mystery shoppers”.
“Almost all of them [are] car owners comparing a one-off bus trip with their own car. As the report itself acknowledges, this is a limitation of the sample,” it said.
“The views of regular users are better reflected in the facts,” it said, before pointing to a survey conducted by the University of Nicosia which found that bus passengers on average rated the service at 7.89 out of 10 in April.
It also pointed out that the audit office’s research had been conducted last year, and that since then, “Cyprus Public Transport has launched a new website and a new version of the Pame app with real-time bus tracking and arrival times, both running on a single database so that [the] app and the website show the same information”.
“In addition, all Cyprus Public Transport routes are now also available on Google Maps, the most widely used journey-planning tool worldwide, with real-time information fed directly from the transport ministry’s public passenger transport telematics system, giving passengers one more reliable way to plan their trip.”
Cyprus Public Transport ‘ready’ for card payments if govt gives go-ahead
It added that pre-recorded stop announcements on buses have been “upgraded” and that the volume of those announcements has been “adjusted”, while the provision of “overall onboard information to passengers during the journey” has also been “enhanced”.
Additionally, it pointed out that the transport ministry has in recent years “launched a major investment to replace and upgrade every bus stop in Cyprus”, and that Cyprus Public Transport “supplies the route and timetable information for the new stops”.
“Several of the report’s main findings on passenger information have therefore already been acted upon,” CPT said.
It also pushed back on criticism of the fact that bus passengers can only pay for tickets in cash on the bus, saying that this issue falls “under the government’s platform”, and that it is “ready to extend” to card payments on buses “as soon as new functions are approved”.
Regarding the report that a bus driver refused to provide assistance to a passenger with a disability, it said that it “regrets the incident … which does not reflect the standard it demands of its staff”.
“The case has been investigated and addressed. The entire fleet is accessible, all drivers are trained in assisting passengers with reduced mobility, and Cyprus Public Transport has signed an agreement with the association of people with disabilities, under which it takes part in driver training,” he said.