The price of petrol has now passed €1.70 a litre, while diesel has reached almost €2. The latest rise in fuel prices raises the question again of how far the rising cost of driving really makes the bus an attractive option. Let's look at a real example, one that reflects my own daily reality. On my daily commute from Lakatamia to the city centre, from home to work and back, a round trip of about 22 kilometres, my petrol car, which is economical in town and uses 7 litres per 100 kilometres in urban driving, burns around 1.54 litres a day. With petrol at €1.70 a litre, the daily cost comes to €2.62, or about €57.60 a month over 22 working days.
€10 less by car
That is about €10 less than the €66.90 cost of a 30-day bus pass. The comparison, of course, covers only the direct cost of petrol and does not include insurance, maintenance, tyres or depreciation. Even so, from the point of view of a driver who already owns a car and is weighing the money that will come straight out of their pocket to get to work, the financial incentive to switch to the bus is far from obvious. Especially once time is factored in.
55 minutes by bus, 52 by car
To use the bus, a commuter has to count not only the length of the journey, but also the time it takes to reach the stop, the wait for the bus, any changes and then the distance from the final stop to the workplace. By car, the journey is essentially door to door. Even at rush hour, buses cannot bypass traffic everywhere, because bus lanes in Cyprus remain limited, so for much of the route they are stuck in the same traffic as every other vehicle. In my case, the drive takes about 22 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes on the way home because of heavier afternoon traffic, a total of 52 minutes a day. By bus, the same route takes about 25 to 30 minutes each way. Taking 27.5 minutes as an indicative average, that amounts to about 55 minutes a day on the bus, which on its own is not far off the 52 minutes by car.
Plus 24 minutes of walking
The real difference starts to build up before passengers board the bus and after they get off. I need about 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop, and another 7 minutes from Solomou Square to my workplace. On the way back, it is again 7 minutes to the stop and 5 minutes from the final stop to my home. In total, taking the bus means an extra 24 minutes of walking every day. So, without counting a single minute of waiting at the stop, the total daily commute by bus comes to about 79 minutes, compared with 52 minutes by car, a minimum difference of about 27 minutes every working day. Over a month of 22 working days, that adds up to almost 10 extra hours of travel by bus. And this is essentially the best-case scenario, since the calculation assumes the passenger reaches the stop just as the bus arrives.
Waiting at the stop
Add waiting time, and the picture shifts even further. Buses in Cyprus do not run every 7 to 10 minutes, a tolerable interval which, according to our research, reflects the reality of public transport in other southern European cities such as Athens, Valletta, Madrid and Rome. In Cyprus, if you turn up at a stop at random, the wait ranges from 15 to 30 minutes. Fortunately, someone thought ahead, so you don't have to go to the stop and wait. Through telematics and the Motion app, passengers can see when a bus is expected at a particular stop. This means they don't need to arrive early and wait, and can plan better. It is a significant improvement in passengers' daily experience that makes using the bus more predictable.
Competitive buses
The figures above apply to my case. They do not mean that the car is always cheaper, or that the bus cannot be the better option for certain routes and passengers. They do show, however, how hard it is to change daily travel habits, even with a significant rise in fuel prices. For public transport to be truly competitive, it must be able to compete with the car not only on price, but also on frequency, reliability, access to stops and, above all, total journey time. Unfortunately, this was not achieved through the changes made in 2010 and 2020 to the bus companies' ten-year contracts with the state.
Dependence on the car
Sixteen years after the first "reform" of public transport, the data show how strong Cyprus' dependence on the private car remains. According to Eurostat, Cyprus had 661 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, compared with an EU average of 578. That same year, 85% of Cyprus residents aged 16 and over did not use public transport at all, compared with 68% in Italy, 61.3% in Greece and 50.6% across the EU. Daily use of public transport in Cyprus was limited to 4.5%, compared with 10.7% in the EU. The target of 10% by 2030 looks out of reach.
Bus fares double those elsewhere
The cost of the bus is also part of the equation. Under the new fare system, a single urban ticket costs €2 with a card, while a 30-day pass costs €66.90. The comparison with other European capitals is telling. The equivalent monthly pass costs €27 in Athens, €35 in Rome and around €32.70 in Madrid, while in Malta regular routes are free for eligible passengers with a personalised card. Of course, the longer the distance a driver covers every day, and the less fuel-efficient their car, the more the financial advantage shifts in favour of public transport.
The question, then, is not only whether the bus is cheaper than the car. It is also what level of public transport is being offered to citizens, so that they have a real incentive to change how they travel. That matters if the traffic problem, which worsens in Cyprus every year, is to be solved, as the time vehicles spend stuck in traffic keeps growing, along with the cost to every household and to the economy.
Steep increases from 2028
It is important to point out that there is another reason why Cypriots need to switch to public transport: motor fuel will become even more expensive. On 1 January 2028, the new emissions trading system for carbon dioxide will come into force and include road transport. Transport accounts for 55% of Cyprus' emissions, since 83.5% of domestic passenger travel is by private car. If we do not switch to alternative modes of transport, we will be asked to pay even more.
The 2031 challenge
The Transport Ministry itself, in an earlier statement to Politis, acknowledged that despite improvements in recent years, weaknesses remain in network coverage, frequency, delays and reliability. These factors limit the appeal of public transport and reinforce dependence on the private car. The next contract period begins in 2031. According to the Transport Ministry, the discussion on the new concession contracts will start at the end of 2026, first with drafting the new terms and then with an open tender. That discussion cannot be limited to simply replacing the existing contracts. The question is whether the next public transport model will manage to offer more frequent services, better coverage, greater reliability and, above all, competitive journey times. Because, as we said earlier, a rise in the price of petrol may make the car more expensive, but it does not automatically make the bus more attractive.
If we really want more Cypriots to leave their cars at home, the challenge for the next decade is to make public transport so good, reliable and practical that the bus becomes a real choice and not a last resort. The Transport Ministry acknowledges this. Its aim, it says, is to draw on the experience gained and to update and improve the terms of the new contracts. What remains is for it to actually succeed.
