The alarm bell for the “tragic” situation of confusion prevailing in public transport, sounded the Alexis Tsipras, in a meeting with the workers' union in OASA and its subsidiaries.
As the SYRIZA president stressed, while the basic principle of the anti-coronavirus measures is the principle of non-syndromicism, the situation in public transport and especially in buses has been “tragic” for the last two years.
«It is inconceivable that for two years now there have been no moves to increase the fleet and reduce confusion», Tsipras said, not only to protect citizens but also bus workers.
He then directly blamed the South West government for cancelling the ongoing tender for the supply of 750 buses immediately after coming to power in 2019. As he said, «this government has a peculiarity because it wants to set the terms of every tender by itself and its ministers; and let no one know.».
«The result is that we have been here for two years with a tender that should have been completed and is not being completed. If they had left the tender of the previous government, today we would have half of the 750 buses and in the next period we would have received the remaining half.”, he pointed out and criticised the government for making such old-fashioned choices as leasing vehicles without windows in the midst of a pandemic.
«I want to sound the alarm,» said the president of SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance and noted that immediate action must be taken.
«Let's not listen to nonsense, the pandemic is not a pandemic of the unvaccinated, it concerns us all. There are unfortunately dozens of vaccinated people who are sick, and it will not end here. And with a health care system that has collapsed. We all have a duty to protect the community, ourselves, the workers, the citizens. The message I want to send is that measures must be taken here and now for new public transport, for new buses, to stop the confusion of citizens who want to move and cannot afford it and are piled up like sardines on top of each other», concluded Al.Tsipras.
