Vodafone competition winner

The winner of our Vodafone competition this month is Christiana Farrugia of Victoria whose entry reads:

The spiralling of fuel costs is causing a rethink of motorists' attitude towards private transport. People are seeking alternative modes of transport to do thier errands and get to their place of work and back home.

However, in Gozo alternative modes of transport, especially in terms of route buses, practically do not exist. This may be due to the fact that people relied heavily on their own transport during the past two decades or so. Therefore public transport was neglected and never brought up to standard.

The time is ripe for fresh ideas to overhaul the whole fleet of buses while creating new services and routes.

Current buses are no longer suitable for our day and age. They are huge and are difficult to manoeuvre in Gozo's narrow and winding roads. They should be substituted with smaller buses which are fuel-efficient, easily manageable and capable of avoiding traffic jams. The introduction of such smaller buses would be the prelude to new routes which can reach all outlying villages.

It is also the right time for bus, taxi and minibus to form a Gozo public transport services co-operative. This co-operative could help co-ordinate public transport in Gozo for the benefit of the user.

Ms Farrugia has won a Simply VS3 mobile phone offered by Vodafone Malta Ltd. The competition resumes next week.