Public transport service deteriorated in eight months – Bezzina

 The public transport service has deteriorated over the past eight months, according to Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina.

Bezzina, the Opposition's spokesperson for transport and infrastructure, said that despite the already existent problems with the public transport service, "things got worse over the past months".

"We can reach improvements in a relatively short period of time. Eight months have passed since the election of a Labour government and, according to regular users, the public transport has worsened," Bezzina said.

Insisting that he understood there were ongoing discussions between the government and Arriva, he said this could be the reason as to why no mention of the situation was made in the Finance Minister's budget speech.

"But what is of concern is that the budget vote for this sector was reduced by €2 million. I hope these cuts won't affect the service," he said.

Bezzina likened the budget to an apple "which was nice from the outside but rotten on the inside".

"I expected the government to talk about its plans to create more jobs and on measures to protect the environment," he said, adding that the Nationalist administration had embarked on several projects by which public land was returned to the public in the form of open spaces.

Bezzina added that problems related to traffic, parking and public transport were on the rise. He said that while the government was accusing the PN administrations as the source of the traffic congestions due to bad designing of the roads, fingers should not be pointed towards the PN.

"The previous administrations retained the same consultants appointed by the Labour administration between 1996 and 1998," he said.

Bezzina questioned a government proposal prohibiting industrial trucks during peak hours suggesting that this could badly affect businesses.

"Have studies been carried out on what impact such a decision could have on the various sectors? Doesn't such an idea risk affecting jobs and productivity?" Bezzina said.

On his part, Nationalist MP Censu Galea said while the idea of an underground would spark an interesting study, yet one had to be careful of the financial feasibility of the project and the impact on its udders.

"The concept of an underground has been raised several times, including from the private sector. It is an attractive idea which attracts a substantial amount of discussion. But it also requires a substantial amount of investment," he said.

Galea said the question that had to be addressed was what it would mean for a small country like Malta.

"Our numbers are against us and financially the project might never recover itself," he said.