Taxi drivers to strike over Marina spat

E DII TO RII A L

’Tis the silly season, once again, with little or no news being reported in August as everyone goes on holiday, putting everything behind them and careless of the real problems that lie ahead.

But the taxi drivers have once again stolen the limelight from the likes of discussions and accusations flying all over the place about the Cyprob, the foreclosures bill, protection of primary homes, Troika reforms, etc.

This time, the expensive service providers have the audacity (but who dares to put them in their place!) to demand they have their own taxi ranks within the privatelyoperated Limassol Marina, or else they will strike and block the resort’s entrance on Friday.

These are the same people who gradually inched their way into the designs of the Hermesoperated airports at Larnaca and Paphos and have now taken up the entire drop-off and pick-up areas, while they continue to charge 80 euros for a “race” to Ayia Napa.

As if this rip-off service was not enough, in the absence of reliable public transport (Larnaca has three rival bus companies for a population of 50,000!), taxi-drivers continue to be treated like feudal lords and no-one, not even the popular mayors seem to have the strength to tell them to take a hike.

These shabby-looking, one-armed loud drivers who rarely need a loudspeaker to converse with their colleagues just a step away, are already giving Cyprus a bad reputation as the land of the “crappy cabbies” with a taxi fare for less than a few kilometers costing as much as a dinner for two at any of the finest restaurants in Cyprus.

Let’s hope that the Limassol Marina operators will have the courage to put an end to this bullying, by encouraging their tenants to use alternative modes of transport.

A tuk-tuk perhaps?