Plans by the Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Ministry to prevent taxi drivers from proceeding with the third in a series of incremental increases in their charges, due to come into force in May, have sparked talks of a taxi strike.

According to sources, planned changes by Minister Dimitris Reppas also include depriving taxi drivers of access to bus lanes, a privilege which the previous conservative government had introduced in the capital in July as a pilot program.

Meanwhile, there are reports of tension between cabbies in Athens and in the rest of the country, including Crete, regarding the third scheduled fare increase. According to sources, local drivers welcome the ministry’s plan to revoke the hike as they claim to have seen their takings drop and believe that another increase in May, after this recent one in November, will only make things worse.

With the latest increase, taxi charges are now 0.60 euros per kilometre, up from 0.48 euros. Next May's scheduled hike will bring taxi charges to 0.72 euros per kilometre. These incremental increases followed a "gentleman’s agreement" reached in April between the taxi union and the ministry.  However, it was stressed that cabbies would have to earn these fee hikes by cleaning up their act, improving treatment of passengers and cutting out common violations such as overcharging and taking on multiple passengers.