Talks to improve order at Mgarr harbour

Gozo Channel is in talks with the police over how to improve the situation at the pre-marshalling area where cars queue up for the ferry at Mgarr harbour.

The influx of visitors over the Easter weekend, when more than 10,822 vehicles and 43,403 people crossed between the two islands, translated into a traffic control nightmare at Mgarr.

Cars started accumulating by 4.15 p.m. on Easter Sunday, and a policeman and Gozo Channel employee were walking up and down the queue of cars asking them whether they had pre-paid tickets and advising them that this entitled them to use another lane, bypassing the queues.

Company general manager Marvic Fenech Adami said: "Mgarr has always been a small harbour. However, because of the terminal works under way, the harbour quay was reduced by half so the pre-marshalling area is small or non-existent."

Mr Fenech Adami said in an interview that the company was working hand-in-hand with the police to control the traffic, especially when cars were disembarking and others were waiting to board.

Over 850,000 cars a year pass between the two islands, so the company was devising new ways of dealing with the congestion.

A scheme for buying pre-paid tickets from Cirkewwa was introduced last month and the company was appealing to passengers to buy the tickets before they cross over to Gozo.

"Once passengers have the pre-paid tickets they can immediately go through a specific lane and avoid queuing in Mgarr, helping us and in the process boarding quicker," he said.

"We are not expecting work at Mgarr to be ready before the end of summer so we are trying to find an adequate system to eliminate queues. It is critical that more people buy tickets from Cirkewwa," he said.

Asked if the company intended to set up other ticket sales points in localities such as Victoria, Mr Fenech Adami said the ticketing system was still relatively new and they were focusing on fine-tuning it before adding more sales points.

"We have various ticket schemes planned for the future, such as automatic vending machines, but we don't want to rush and prefer to consolidate our present ticketing system," he said.

Many people are still not aware that they can buy tickets from Cirkewwa, despite numerous signs.

To make matters worse, due to the works at the Cirkewwa quay, the boat is operating from the South Quay and people are not prepared to lose their space in the queue to walk to the other side and buy the tickets.

"Despite this, the sales of pre-paid tickets are still encouraging," he said.

The number of vehicles making the crossing has been increasing steadily, from 563,367 in 1997 to 844,913 last year.

Mr Fenech Adami said that the introduction of the three new ferry boats - Ta' Pinu, Malita and Gaudos - had helped to reduce queues because of their larger capacity and better access.