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Matthew Vella
The owners of three open-top double-decker buses have taken a 13-year-long protest to the courts and the Office for Fair Trading, claiming the authorities’ delay in issuing a permit to operate the buses was “abusive” in terms of the Competition Act and causing the company serious financial losses.
Garden of Eden filed a judicial protest earlier this week calling upon the courts to order the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) to uphold a promise to concede permission to the company to provide services for tourists by means of double-decker buses.
The three buses were imported in 1993 with no objection from the ADT. But since then, the relevant authorities never registered the buses and consequently, never issued the number plates.
Garden of Eden said that in 1997, the transport authority had told the company it intended to issue licences for the operation of open-top buses, saying in a letter that “the Board is favourably considering allowing you to operate open-top buses.” But the situation has remained stagnant ever since.
The transport authorities claim the open-top buses pose a safety risk despite being below the maximum height of four metres, since an adult standing up on the top deck would have his upper body protruding well above the front windscreen, over the maximum height.
In February 2005, Enterprise and Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugen confirmed in a reply to MEP Joseph Muscat that Malta’s prohibition of licences for the operation of the coaches was “without doubt, an obstacle to the operation of the internal market because these vehicles are legally authorised in the other Member States.”
Since then, the ADT has never issued a licence for the operation of the double-deckers.
Only last March, the authority issued a tender for a concession for the provision of a sightseeing tour around the Maltese islands to be operated by open-top buses. The tender is split into two, for the operation of services in the northern and southern parts of the island.
Garden of Eden has claimed the conditions of the tender are “commercially unsustainable”.
“The protestors find the issue of the tender risible, with the aim of shutting up Commissioner Gunther Verheugen, and a particularly feeble attempt when one considers the same authority had always informed the protestors their application to operate three open-top double-deckers was being considered favourably,” the judicial protest read.
Garden of Eden said the actions of the ADT were irresponsible and abusive, and had caused serious financial losses to the company after being refused a licence to operate “for no valid reason”, even after Verhuegen’s claim that the authorities were setting up an obstacle to the market’s operation.
The company’s lawyers have now taken the matter before the Office for Fair Competition by means of a formal complaint filed on Thursday.
Last year, in replies to this newspaper, the Transport Ministry claimed the double-deckers, whose roofs were dismantled to be reduced to a height below four metres, still posed a safety risk since an adult standing up on the top deck would have his upper body protruding well above the front windscreen, over the maximum authorised height of four metres.
Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett has also said in parliament that he disagreed with an open market for double-decker coaches for as long as all the other sectors of public transport remained closed, referring to various monopolies and closed sectors in the transport sector still exist, such as route buses, taxis, coaches and hearses.
Despite Malta’s “closed” transport sector, as an EU member Malta cannot prohibit the operation of European licensed vehicles, including double-deckers, which are registered and licensed in the EU and are being used as part of an overland journey.
Last year the authorities allowed double-decker buses licensed in Germany to enter Malta with foreign tourists. As an EU member state, Malta must allow full market access for passenger transport vehicles registered and licensed in the EU.
The transport ministry claimed the buses were permitted to operate in Malta since they were in conformity with EU dimensions.
Garden of Eden director Alfred Spiteri told Maltatoday the situation was tantamount to discrimination by the government, since the double-deckers he owned were clearly in conformity with EU dimensions, and urged minister Mugliett to reply to the company’s concerns.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/06/05/t19.html
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