For the first time, Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos and Limassol mayor Yiannis Armeftis are jointly exploring bringing trams to both cities. They have asked the Transport Ministry for help, but the ministry appears to be against the idea for now.
According to Prountzos, the ministry’s relevant department believes the European Investment Bank would not fund the project, because bus use is too low to justify a new form of public transport.
Prountzos said they disagreed. Buses have been tried for about 17 years, since the relevant contracts began, and at least as the current system is run, they appear not to have attracted people in the numbers expected, he said. Buses would still run alongside the tram.
He said the time had come to discuss the tram as a fixed-track mode of transport, which would put public transport back on the public agenda. Now is also the right moment because the Nicosia bus contract expires in 2030 and consultations on new specifications have already begun, he said.
Their aim, Prountzos said, is to revive the prospect of trams on new rails and to weigh every factor. That means looking beyond the costs of building, running and maintaining a tram to others, such as the cost Cyprus pays for emissions from road traffic.
Prountzos confirmed to Phileleftheros that the tram was one of the items on the agenda of a recent meeting. He said the Nicosia municipality had not asked for a new study, but for an update of one prepared in the past. The issue had been raised after consultation with Armeftis, he said, adding that he did not want to speak for him.
When the idea came up during his time in office, former transport minister Alexis Vafeades said the EU favours increasing bus ridership to a level that would make running a tram viable. He also questioned whether the project would be sustainable, since the costs of maintaining and running it must be counted on top of the cost of building it.
