Olympic planners take aim at wild taxis

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- It's a qualifying heat for cabbies.

Organizers of the 2004 Athens Games will select an elite corps of about 2,000 taxi drivers from the city's 30,000 cabbies to work during the Olympics.

The plan is to tame the city's mean streets by creating a hand-picked fleet of well-mannered, professional -- and honest -- cab drivers for the Summer Games.

Even the people at the wheel acknowledge that passengers need to be careful with their money.

"We are just small-time con artists," said Lefteris Terzakis, head of the taxi owners' confederation of Greece. He complained that the country has bigger corruption problems.

Local drivers also can be picky about where they will go. Passengers often have a difficult time getting a cab to take them to remote neighborhoods where there is little chance for a return fare.

"Twenty taxi drivers go by, four with no one in the cab, and they are saying, 'No,"' said Marsha Smith, a tourist from Washington.

So what's the plan to change the taxi drivers?

"They will go through seminars. They will be informed about the behavior they must have as professionals," Terzakis said.

The selection process should begin later this year, when Olympic planners will start to work on transportation plans.

A group of 1,500 drivers will be paid a flat fee of about US$120 for a 12-hour shift of ferrying around International Olympic Committee officials and other VIPs.

Another 600 cabbies will get permits to drive their taxis on some of Athens' major roads and make airport runs -- areas that will be generally closed to vehicles without special passes.

Beginning next year, Olympics planners will start a series of one-day sessions on Olympic protocol and safe driving techniques.

"Courses in the history of Greece and the Olympic Games are also on the agenda," 2004 transportation director Panos Protopsaltis said.

Athens is not the only place where taxi drivers have been asked to go to school before an international sporting event.

For soccer's World Cup this summer, many Japanese taxi companies offered training in basic English expressions. Ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, drivers were given guidelines on how to treat international visitors.

In Athens, some cabbies feel they are the ones being wronged. The big Olympic payday they expected might not materialize.

Those drivers not chosen by Olympic organizers don't have a lot of options. They either will have to try to work on Athens' side streets, head out to the suburbs, or put their taxis in storage.

"The majority (of drivers) will choose to go on vacation because life will be unbearable in Athens," Terzakis said. "Our problem is not to go hungry."

During the Olympics, officials hope to persuade Athenians to leave their cars at home and join spectators in using public transportation.

Taxis in Greece charge among the lowest fares in the European Union and operators have been demanding a hike.

The starting fare for taxis in Athens is 71 cents, with 22 cents per 0.6 miles. In Rome, for example, cabs start at $2.28 and add 75 cents per 0.6 miles.

Although Athens is certainly not the only city in the world where taxi drivers con passengers, the low fares might have made cheating part of the culture.

"It is an issue of survival," driver Dmitri Loli said. "There is no other way. Only if they swindle people -- only that way will they make money."

Athens still to secure cruise ship hotels

TINOS, Greece (AP) -- Organizers of the Athens Olympics said Wednesday they have not yet signed contracts for 10 of the 11 cruise ships they plan to use as floating hotels to alleviate a shortage of hotel rooms during the 2004 Games.

Organizers have so far signed a deal for just one ship that will be docked in Athens' port city of Piraeus, said 2004 accommodation director Spyros Pappas.

"The agreements have not been signed," but the rest of the agreements will be finalized in coming days, Pappas said.

The deal already signed is for the Queen Mary II -- now under construction in France. More than 13,000 visitors will be housed on the Queen Mary II and 10 other cruise ships.

Athens is facing a huge challenge to find space for spectators and others who will attend the games. Nearly all of Athens' prime hotel rooms are already assigned to the International Olympic Committee, sponsors and other dignitaries.

 

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