The capital of Cyprus intends to develop a fleet of smaller buses within the walls of the city's historic centre, with the goal of making it a car-free zone.

There are currently no bus services available within the old city, as the streets are too narrow for the current public buses. Nicosia has therefore published a tender for 13 smaller buses that will be able to carry visitors and residents around the area.

'The buses will cover the old part of the town and the objective of the plan is to make most of the historic part of a town a pedestrian area and to reduce personal car usage to the minimum,' said Aristotelis Savva, a public works official from Nicosia.

The buses are included in the Nicosia Integrated Mobility Master Plan, which aims to change the commuting habits of local residents. According to a 2013 Eurobarometer (link is external) report, only three per cent of Cypriots use public transport on a daily basis.

For more information, visit cyprus-mail.com (link is external) (in English).

Source: Eltis

Local transport companies in Brno have signed a multi-million euro contract to receive a new batch of electric trolley buses next year.

The Czech Republic’s second-largest city, which with 140 electric buses in operation has the largest trolley-bus network in the country, will see 30 low-floor articulated buses worth 395 million Czech koruna (€ 14.2 million) arrive and become operational in the first six months of 2015.

Bought from Škoda Electric, which has previously supplied Brno with trolleybuses in 2007 and 2009, the new low-floor models include wide aisles to increase accessibility, as well as entrances and exits on the same level as the edge of the city’s pavements. They also feature on-board passenger information systems.

For more information, visit newstix.de (link is external) (in German).

Source: Eltis

 

Vehicles from car-sharing companies Cambio CarSharing and Zen Car will be exempt from parking charges in the Belgian capital from September.

Drivers of the two shared-car providers will receive free parking in green and grey parking zones throughout the city. For orange and red zones there will be no such exemption, and the same rules for payment and parking time will apply. 

However, a spokesperson for the regional parking agency stated that these restrictions only applied to 'a minimal number of streets' in Brussels.

Instead of their customers pay for parking, Cambio and Zen must instead pay a charge of € 5 per vehicle per year to the city.

Emily Muhr, a spokesperson for Cambio, said that the company was pleased with the decision. 'It's an advantage for our customers to not have to pay parking tickets, and it reduces administration for us.'

For more information, visit brusselnieuws.be (link is external) (in Dutch) or lacapitale.be (link is external) (in French).

Source: Eltis