School transport in Northern Cyprus will not start on Monday, September 21 either

School transport in Northern Cyprus will not start on Monday, September 21 either. The Kar-İş public transport operators’ association and the Turkish Cypriot Public Transport Operators’ Union (KTTTB) said they would not begin operating routes until a preliminary protocol is signed with the TRNC authorities and a legal basis for the contracts is established.

According to Kar-İş chairman Fuat Topaloğlu, the government had asked for time until Friday to find a solution, but by the end of the working day on Friday, the operators had received neither a decision nor proposals or an official document.

Earlier, representatives of the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport held a meeting with the transport operators’ associations. At the meeting, the state said it would prepare a new assessment of the criteria for school transport and asked for time until Friday, after which it promised to provide the operators with the results and proposals for a solution.

The operators, for their part, asked for a preliminary protocol to be signed so that, while the documents were being prepared, students could be transported on a legal and safe basis. They insisted that the protocol explicitly state that additional contracts would be prepared: if these conditions were met, the operators were ready to begin operating the routes as a goodwill gesture.

Topaloğlu identified the Ministry of Finance as responsible for the situation. The associations’ demands include signing a preliminary protocol and providing guarantees regarding the additional contracts, clear criteria for school transport, a transparent payment procedure, regulation of fares, as well as an exact number of students and approved routes.