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Public transport is an essential service if we are aiming for a sustainable society.
From a social point of view, public transport is a social service which is supposed to increase accessibility so that people can travel from one place to another to meet their various needs. Here one need only think of the various needs of people such as the elderly, physically impaired, non-drivers, workers, youth and people with low income. In a situation of inaccessible public transport, which is the case in various instances in Malta and Gozo, one can speak in terms of people being transport-rich or transport-poor.
From an environmental point of view, public transport is essential to help reduce problems such as increased pollution and its related impact on people’s health, traffic gridlock, parking and construction of new roads on land being used for other purposes (agriculture, residential, open spaces, etc). Malta already tops world figures when it comes to densest road network (1st), most crowded road network (10th) and car ownership (12th – over 260,000 for a population of 400,000!). The construction of new roads is in the offing – suffice to mention the proposed bypass at Manikata which will result in the destruction of groundwater.
Use of public transport in Malta has steadily declined since 1990. This calls for serious action and concrete reforms.
One should first keep in mind that the current system is characterised by a private monopoly – the worst possible situation for a customer. Hardly an incentive for efficiency. Unless nationalisation is proven to be a better and permissible alternative within EU regulations, this system should be replaced by off-the-road liberalisation (where government awards contracts to the most efficient company/ies, which in turn, are bound by various conditions). Therefore I believe that a third way exists between laissez-faire liberalisation and the current situation.
Yet I must make it clear that I cannot imagine an accessible public transport system in Malta without subsidies. As things stand, public transport already has various shortcomings. Imagine a situation without subsidies. This would probably result in further cutbacks particularly in loss-making routes, unless the price of tickets is to increase yet again. Hence, for an accessible and improved public transport system, state intervention is inevitable, particularly in social routes, and in conformity with EU regulations.
To put things into perspective, in the 2006 Budget Lm1.3 million was voted as guaranteed earnings with the Public Transport Authority (PTA), less than 1c per person a day. For the same year, estimated government revenue from motor vehicle licences, driving licences and motor vehicle registration stood at Lm32.6 million!
So, yes, public transport should be reformed. Government should carry out consultation not only with the PTA but also with other civil society interests such as local councils, NGOs, and most importantly, bus users themselves.
Michael Briguglio is Alternattiva Demokratika local councillor for Sliema
With regards to liberalising public transport, one has to ask: is it going to be liberalised or are just route buses going to be liberalised?
We are against the liberalisation of routes for several reasons. Firstly there is the issue of the investment of bus owners and their families into buses, garages and all the parts related to these buses. Before joining the EU our association always participated in MEUSAC and we were always given the guarantee that by joining the EU our sector was not going to be affected by liberalisation. Has the government taken us for a ride or were there no negotiations at all?
The Public Transport Association (PTA) has been catering for this service for about 40 years, providing service for government school children trips and private hire services. We operate all the network around the island. From the 82 routes we operate, only 35 are profitable but the way we manage the routes makes it possible to operate them all and no other operators, not even foreigners, can operate similarly like us. The government has a big problem if it prohibits the association from providing such services.
By the government liberalising and tendering for the routes, will the operators go for only those that are profitable? What is going to happen to the rest of the 47 non-profitable routes? Are several localities going to end up without a service? Or do the commuters have to make up for several trips that are not profitable, such as the taxi service? Or is the government going for the experts it commissioned in these past months by Halcrow of UK and their proposals for eliminating these non-profitable trips that are around 700? What about this?
The public transport commuters are the students, workers, handicapped, elderly people and tourists. In our experience no local operator besides us can cater for the whole network and with just Lm6.5 million turnover revenue from sales of tickets and all the expenses involved to operate such a service, no foreign operator will tender for this service.
We are one of the big contributors to the economy because the PTA is one of the biggest companies on the island providing a living for more than 2,000 persons. What about the recent investment by the bus owners and the government in purchasing new low floor buses? With the low income of the bus owners these buses will take years to be paid off, so who is going to make good for this debt? What about the three million the government invested in these new buses? Is the government going to pay us off, like the Dockyard employees? Or is it pretending we never existed?
The EU directive doesn’t eliminate the direct order contract on those routes that are under the income of EUR1.7 million or 500,000 kilometres. So Minister Mugliett has no excuse – he knows that our association has been in these past months working day by day on re-organising the routes so they will conform with the EU directives. If the minister wants to shift the goalposts then it is another thing.
Victor Spiteri is president of the Public Transport Association |
