“With less cost we will have better infrastructure, better services, with more cheaper routes, more frequent, with less waiting at the stop cleaner buses.”

This was stated in Parliament by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Konstantinos Kyranakis, in response to a topical question by the MP of the New Left, Nasos Iliopoulos.

The latter spoke of the absence of a strategic plan and scientific studies for the replacement of trolleys, questioning the data on the cost of new electric buses.

“The numbers are relentless. For every kilometer traveled by the current trolley fleet, taxpayers pay around 5.5 euros. For every kilometer run by an electric bus, the Greek state, taxpayers pay about 2.5 euros. So we are talking about more than double the cost”, answered Mr. Kyranakis.

At the same time, he clarified that the withdrawal of the trolleys will be done gradually.

“We have not said that we will have a complete deforestation of the trolley lines from the fleet. Those that have a useful life will remain for some years and will be thickened into routes, which will be on straight lines, such as Syngrou, Kifissias, Piraeus, on a series of straight lines where the cables are not so much of a nuisance, and at the same time the rest of the routes will be replaced with more buses”, he said characteristically and added:

“From the money we have secured from European programs we can buy three electric buses for every two new generation trolleybuses, so the cost to taxpayers is lower.”

Mr. Kyranakis also assured that no jobs will be lost.

“I have publicly assured both before the announcement about the trolleys and after the announcement, that all the workers will not lose their jobs. It is absorbed in its entirety by OSY (Road Transport, SA) and at the same time we have an open call for recruitments and indeed with increased salaries”, he emphasized.

Commenting on the ongoing reactions of trade unions, Mr. Kyranakis mentioned that a consultation has taken place, while he left points, noting that “what various unions tell me, I see exactly the same things with prospects of a specific vehicle manufacturer”.

“With less cost we will have better and cheaper infrastructure, better services, with better, cheaper infrastructure. This means more routes, denser, less waiting at stops, cleaner buses”, concluded the Deputy Minister of Transport.