Free mini bus service in Chania Town Centre from 20th June

A new free minibus service, operating within the city of Hania and the old town, is to start this Saturday, 20th June.

Chania City council, in conjunction with KTEL, will introduce the pilot programme to run for three months in the hope that it will ease some of the City Centre summer traffic congestion problems.

The service will operate every 20 minutes daily between 9 a.m and 11 p.m.

The minibus will travel a circular route starting on Tzanakaki Street at the Kypos, then past the Agora market place, down to the harbour, to Koun Kapi, up to the Stadium, along Venizelos Street to the Courthouse, to the Irini and Filias Park and back to Tzanakaki St.

The bus stops:

-Tzanakaki Street, outside the Kypos (Public Gardens)
-Agora (the market)
-Karaolis & Dimitrios St, near Fountain Square in the Old Harbour
-Neoria Gate, Kallergis St
-Korai St. outside the National Stadium
-Venizelou St (Peinaleon restaurant)
-K. Mitsotakis St. (by the Courthouse, outside the Evangelical church)
-I. Sfakianaki Street (Park of Peace and Friendship – Irinis kai Filias Park)


The Mayor of Chania says the scheme is to serve the town’s citizens and visitors, with the aim of them leaving their cars a little outside the city when visiting the centre and the harbour.

Now, call me cynical if you will, but my first thought is that this ‘Park and Ride’ scheme is seriously lacking something – namely the ‘park’ element.

If you want to park on the outskirts of the city, where are the car parks? Apart from a new multi storey being built at the Courthouse (the busy Courthouse area currently has a huge parking problem), the only car parks near the minibus route are by the stadium, at Neoria and near Koun Kapi – in the city centre!

On second thoughts, maybe it will work. Perhaps the Chania citizens will use these town car parks more frequently; now that they can hop on a mini bus they should no longer need to drive from shop to shop, parking outside each.

I see little attraction in this service for the average tourist. Without a designated car park on the outskirts of the town, drivers will still need to negotiate town traffic and park in, or very near, the centre. Once in the centre tourists are unlikely to hop on a minibus to be taken 500 meters down the road – the joy is to walk and discover the town.

A little more planning please Chania.