Minister pledges new buses after one bursts into flames
Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis announced Friday that OSY, the transport authority that manages the capital’s aging fleet of buses, would receive 500 new vehicles in due course.
His pledge came a few hours after a bus burst into flames on the capital’s Mesogeion Avenue near Neo Psychico.
There was no passengers on the bus when the fire started at 8.30 a.m. and nobody was injured. According to initial indications, the blaze occurred after a tire burst while the bus was in motion.
Engineers and employees of OSY have repeatedly complained that the company does not have adequate spare parts and that more than half of the tires on city buses and trolley buses are expired or worn.
In comments in Parliament Friday, Spirtzis said that when the current government came to power, 870 of the 2,387 buses serving the capital were out of order.
