Bus owners lay down condition for talks

The Malta Transport Authority has told the Public Transport Association that it would be prepared to sit round a table and discuss the bus issue on Monday if the association withdrew its directives, the authority's CEO Mario Falzon said.

But the association said it would only be prepared to withdraw its directive - buses will otherwise be stopping at 8 p.m. from Monday - if the authority stuck to a 1995 agreement and dropped the decision taken last year according to which bus owners who did not have a contract to buy a new bus would have to replace their bus without a government subsidy.

Association president Victor Spiteri said this decision was not acceptable.

He maintained that the 1995 agreement made it clear that every one of the 508 bus owners would benefit from the subsidy. He said the association was ready to discuss that agreement.

"We have been hassling for seven years. Suffice it to say that in this period, the authority has changed bus specifications three times. We are constantly re-starting discussions on the issue due to the new boards, chairmen and CEOs," Mr Spiteri said.

Mr Falzon explained that the 1995 agreement offered the opportunity to bus owners to change their buses on a voluntary basis. The authority of the day had issued a call to bus owners, but only 147 had applied.

"Let us first change and install ticketing machines in the 147 buses as agreed in 1995, and then discuss the remaining owners, who may not want to change their buses," was the authority's stand.

"We have to see if these bus owners want to change their buses in the first place," Mr Falzon said.

The association had claimed that the authority's chairman was threatening bus owners that if they did not install ticketing machines they would be prevented from working and the subsidies on the purchase of buses could even be stopped.

The association has also issued a directive to bus owners not to carry out the installation of ticketing machines and said it would resort to a strike if the authority persisted with its threats, instead of discussing around a table.

But Mr Falzon yesterday categorically denied that the association was being threatened.

He said the government was insisting that ticketing machines, which are already in Malta, be installed in buses by the end of the year.

The idea was to offer the commuter a better service, and refusing to install the ticketing machines meant they would not be able to buy block tickets, which saved money for them and was easier for bus drivers, who avoided contact with their passengers, Mr Falzon said.

The authority and the transport minister had always been open to discussion and still were, he added, appealing to the association to withdraw its directives and sit down and talk.

He took the opportunity to highlight the amount of funds the government was allotting to change the buses.

The government was subsidising Lm32,000 for each bus, waiving the first registration, which amounts to Lm3,000, subsidising their insurance, and even the bus fares, which cost nearly Lm900,000 this year alone.