Taking the bus in Nicosia does not necessarily save money for people who already own a car, according to a new Audit Office report. Even where the bus is cheaper, the difference is small in some cases, the report found.
Of the 110 Audit Office staff who travelled on Nicosia buses for the audit, 63 per cent said they would not choose the bus again. They cited mainly the comparison with the car, which in most cases saves time and offers privacy and more comfort.
The staff travelled on Nicosia buses between 10 November and 1 December 2025. The audit, carried out by Auditor General Andreas Papaconstantinou’s office, examined whether passenger transport in Nicosia is cost-effective and of good quality. The body audited was the Transport Ministry.
Cost
The report examined 10 scenarios comparing the cost of using a private car with taking the bus. In one, a petrol car travels 7 kilometres. If the driver is alone, the trip costs 2.59 euros, based on the mileage allowance the government pays civil servants who use their own cars for work. With a passenger, the cost falls to 1.29 euros per person. The same journey by bus costs 2.70 euros.
Whether the bus or the car has the lower additional cost per person depends on how often people travel, how many passengers there are, the distance and the type of vehicle, the report said.
A bus journey from Latsia to the Citizen Service Centre in Engomi costs about 4.80 euros each way, or 9.60 euros for the return trip. Taking into account how long such a journey takes compared with driving, “the benefits of using the bus are called into question”, the report said.
The Transport Ministry responded that the cost of buying a car and other factors that raise the cost of driving should be included in the comparison. The Auditor General said almost everyone already owns a car and will not be buying one. The comparison should therefore leave out the cost of buying a vehicle and instead ask how much it costs a citizen to leave the car at home and take the bus, he said.
Stops and information
The audit found that 55 per cent of bus stops had no information about routes, and only 13 per cent had electronic information displays. Of the stops, 22 per cent had neither a seat nor a shelter, and 32 per cent had no shelter.
In specific cases, the actual location of a stop was about 85 metres and 135 metres away from where it appeared on the bus company’s app and website. Stops that had been abolished were still shown, and information was not updated when routes were diverted for roadworks. In two cases, participants waited about half an hour and then had to walk for another half hour to reach a different stop.
Several stops still displayed route numbers from the previous operator’s contract, which do not match the numbers under the new contract. Several newly installed stops showed no name, stop number, routes or arrival and departure times.
Auditors also found wrong timetables, inaccurate mapping of stops and inconsistencies between different sources of information. The website’s route planner gave wrong information that did not match the Pame app. For a journey from Zakynthou Street in Aglantzia to Esperidon Street in Nicosia, for example, passengers were told a bus would pass stop 684 (Larnakos – Athalassas Avenue) at 8.37am. According to the timetable, the bus passes that stop at 7.40am, and the next one at 10.37am.
Journeys
Most participants (56 per cent) said they had to walk for more than 10 minutes to reach a stop, and 36 per cent walked for between five and 10 minutes. The report said this indicates a moderate level of accessibility. The high share of walks over 10 minutes may deter people with reduced mobility, older people and those short of time, it said.
On several routes, buses ran only every one or two hours. Where a journey required two buses, 47 per cent of participants rated the time it took as unsatisfactory and only 25 per cent as satisfactory. In some cases, changing buses also added to the time and cost of the journey.
Drivers’ behaviour was generally judged satisfactory. However, in one case a driver was unwilling to help a mother with a pushchair get on the bus. There were also cases of drivers failing to meet basic service obligations, such as not handing passengers a ticket and not stopping when a passenger asked to get off.
