Revenue gains gallop ahead of usage

The number of commuters using the buses increased by one per cent in the year up to last September 30, while revenue from fares rose by 23 per cent during the same period, figures published in the annual report of the Malta Transport Authority show.

The number of commuters rose to 30.1 million from 29.9 million in the previous year.

The bus service had revenue from fares of Lm6.1 million in 2004-2005 from Lm5 million in the previous year.

Furthermore, the government paid an "operational subsidy" of Lm2 million to the Public Transport Association lasy year. For this year, it offered the PTA a subsidy of Lm1.1 million which is to be inreased to take account of the impact of fuel price increases after last month. The government also gave a subsidy of Lm100,000 for insurance.

The report recalled that an agreement with the bus owners reached on October 4 last year provided for, among other things, new direct services or extensions to existing services aimed at developing a new hub at the university/Mater DeiHospital; a code of ethics for bus owners and drivers and a mechanism to ensure that low floor buses were operated on the routes at all times.

In its report the ADT said all taxis in Malta and Gozo are to be equipped with taximeters this year. The authority last April had published conditions for taximeters and the White Taxi Amalgamated provided the authrity with a compatibe taximeter model.

The authority said that following the building of a shelter for horses at Palace Square, Valletta, more shelters will be built in the coming months. The authority has also drafted a legal notice to regulate the use of "animal drawn vehicles" for the carriage of passengers and goods by road. Other plans for this year include an ongoing road safety campaign funded from speed camera contraventions.

In its report on the activities of the Enforcement Unit the authority does not give any statistics on inspections/bookings by its inspectors but says that "significant progress" was made in the overall public transport service at the cruise passenger terminal, the taxi and minivan service operating from the airport and the coaches/minivans parking problems at the Sliema Strand. A roadside checks/tests section was set up to conduct roadside tests of vehicles.

On traffic management, the authority speaks of an analysis of "discrete choice behaviour" saying its Traffic Mangement Direcorate is "currently working on prediction formulae for traffic management interventions using multinominal regression analysis to establish the prediction formulae based on primary data collected. Such prediction formulae will serve as an important planning tool to forecast impacts and extent of effect of proposed traffic management arrangements."

No explanation was given.