UPDATED: Public transport: Muscat urges consultation on 'national problem'

MLP leader Joseph Muscat has urged the government to explain its national strategy for public transport.

In comments made at Zejtun after the Public Transport Federation announced it would call an indefinite strike from Monday unless new licences for hearses were withdrawn, Dr Muscat said that with or without liberalisation, the people deserved a reasonably priced and efficient public transport while the operators should have a fair return on their investment.

Dr Muscat referred to the government’s “abrupt” decisions on the hearses, noting that this was not listed in the PN electoral programme. In this context, the government should declare what it was aiming for, since the crux of the issue was the national strategy for transport.

He said public transport was longstanding “a national problem” which successive governments had not been able to solve. The current government, however, was taking decisions without consultation. This was not the way things should be done and both consumers and operators needed to be heard.

It was ironic, Dr Muscat said, that minister who was most expert in threats would not hold talks with those concerned until they stopped what the minister was describing as their threats.

Dr Muscat said the MLP would put public transport on its agenda and would offer its services for the two sides in the current dispute to hold talks.