Ferry and ride

Although people were initially against the Park and Ride scheme, it has now been so successful that the government has decided to increase the area to take another 650 cars.

As about 4,000 people work in Floriana, some of the mini-buses should stop at Floriana near the Vilhena Monument. This would not only allow those who work in Floriana to use the Park and Ride, which today they cannot use, but will allow the 1,000 elderly people of Floriana to board the mini-buses to Valletta.

Today they are forced to walk in the rain during the winter months and suffer a sunstroke in summer because bus No. 62 does not pass through St Anne Street where over 40,000 cars belch smoke and harm the health of residents and passersby.

During a dialogue meeting and several letters to the press, I have insisted on a "Ferry and Ride" from Sliema and the Cottonera area towards Floriana where 4,000 people work and another 20,000 visit several offices, Boffa Hospital and the polyclinic. Mini-buses could take the ferry passengers from Pinto Wharf and the Excelsior Hotel to the top. I have seen a one-man ferry in Barcelona Harbour doing this, so why not in Valletta and Floriana? I have even got the address of this company.

Finally, a lift from the old Customs House to Valletta is a must for the Cottonera ferry passengers and another lift from the Pinto passenger terminal to Floriana would not only be an added attraction but an essential service to commuters.

So a combined service of ferries, lifts and mini-buses would help people leave their car at home thus saving petrol and ensuring a more healthy atmosphere in the Valletta/Floriana peninsula where chaos and dirt in the bus terminus area are a bad advert for tourism and a nightmare for passengers boarding buses, especially if they are elderly.