Government stops subsidy to bus drivers

@ Julian Borg Barthet I agree 100% with you. Everyone has a right to a protest but not violently. In many countries when there is crowd violence they send a riot squad to deal with the problem. how can they be allowed to block the roads with their cars when if any of us do this we end up with our car being towed. solution would be move your cars or they will be towed away. a few drivers even forced the emergency bus service to stop. yesterday a group of strikers stopped a london bus and stole its battery!!!! BRING OUT THE RIOT SQUAD!!!!!

If I stop for a minute to buy a bottle of water, a warden will give me a ticket so what is the reason for not giving any tickets to all those busses and taxis stopping and making a traffic jam.

@ Paul Agius You are an owner/operator - that makes you a businessman. People in business respect their customers, they don't ask for charity, they have overhead like you do and still manage to make a profit, otherwise they close shop. They treat their customers right hoping that they will get their repeat business. You obviously do not have to worry about repeat business because you get it anyway. So, that is why the majority of bus drivers treat their customers like dirt? Why they smoke in a no-smoking bus? Why they short change tourists (and locals if they can get away with it)? You have a new(er) bus and you change your clutch and gearbox every 2 months? You must be the most inept driver ever or, you are lying through your teeth or the mechanic you use is taking you for a ride (not during the strike, I hope). Who are you trying to impress? Not me.

Cancel all subsidies, all agreements with the association and with owners/operators - permanently. Let them find out how good they had it and how poor their service was. Get them to reapply for their permits in competition with other applicants. Then select the best and leave the riffraff out. As long as the present arrangements remain, the drivers will maintain the lowest level of service possible. Now is a golden opportunity for Minister Gatt to go full steam ahead with TOTAL privatization of the transportation industry and that is : hearses, buses, privates, mini-vans and taxis. Never before now has the WHOLE nation been behind the government. This is a REFERENDUM of condemnation against the conduct of these thugs with an almost unanimous vote. The Times poll indicates 87%+ are in favour of complete liberalization - with this kind of backing why compromise?

re: paul aguis

do you think that how the actions are being done are fair?

for all that i know a good way of striking is: by not providing the service and stay near castille (without doing damge) to show the authorities that you want answers. already by
doing this will create a bit of chaos which is a striking element! the haste of matters worsened the affairs. also these vandal attacks do not help your situation. i don't know matters well (i think nobody does exactly :-P) but negotiation is the key factor and a serious negotiation of a give and take situation were both will be happy equally.

Let's hear from everyone here that agrees that we need to take one approach with Malta.

ZERO TOLERANCE

What the bus drivers did in Valletta should have been met with riot gear and tear gas, along with arrests... they want a fight, give it to them, i'm sick of seeing the government pamper these people. If i'm pulled over by the police for using my phone, I want a ticket, no excuses, no being upset, I did wrong and endangered lives including my own, I deserve a ticket...
ZERO TOLERANCE. Let that be the slogan of the public since we ended up in the middle of this squabble.

Not only should the subsidy be stopped but the Govt should also sue the association for breach of contract .

The Government may say he stops the subsidy, but at the end he has to swallow up his words and regive us the subsidy in full or even more (surely not a single penny less). No one appreciates the great service we do to our country and it must be an occasion like this for many to understand the important role we play. We were forced to spend thousands to buy new buses and bear all risks ourselves, with many of us still paying their loans. This not to mention the high maintenance costs of running a bus, to mention an example: replacing the clutch and or gearbox nearly once every 2 months. After making pre-election false promises, the Government now expects us to sit like puppets with him on the table and discuss! I don't need to say more, only wish that everyone be reasonable and mature enough to understand our unfortunate position.

Well done! Now is a good time to impose fines for a service not provided as per license conditions, followed by revoking the license of the current 'operators' and putting new licenses up for bids should the situation continue. I am sure there is wide popular support for this move.

Dr Gatt, please please do not give in to these thugs and dont go back on your word re the subsidies. We are all amazed at your guts. Maybe they will think twice next time round.

after reading some of the comments and what is happening in these recent years i can see clearly that here in malta everything is rushed and done immediately by a flick of a switch. well it is about time that a transportation reform was needed!! i think that the adt or the authorities (i don't exactly know who is the entity in charge) is opting for the easy solution of liberising and leaving the transportation problem to the new tender holder. it is clever but why we are leaving this task to foreigners. now i will think that some people may say cuz they are better than us WRONG!! its just that we have wrong persons for the wrong tasks. it is difficult to say if it is fair or not because it is just applying darwin's rule of survival of the fittest in the bisness & job area. i recall a video on this site of dr gatt saying on using alternative methods rather than cars such as white taxis.. erm does he know how much they cost?? one may blame the driver for the cost but one may blame the society that left the situation remain the same

It is about time these hefty subsidies stop. So the Govt is taking time to amend the car registration tax, reason being that it generates millions in revenue. And we keep forking out millions to buses, which most of us do not use. Maybe it would be a better idea to reduce car registration tax and have newer cars on our roads, than subsidising a polluting traffic jamming public transport system. All this talk of using public transport seems a bit far fetched. Working mothers normally do not less than five errands on their way to and from work, picking up children, visiting parents, shopping etc. etc. How are they expected to use public transport, whether it is privatised, liberalised or whatever in such a tight schedule. This phenomenon of cars and traffic jams is not only a problem in Malta, I was personally held up in traffic jams for hours in Germany, Italy etc. Public transport is only ideal for people who only go straight to work and back. For most of us, an overhaul of the car registration tax is more beneficial. We will have cleaner cars and get rid of our polluting old vehicles and public transport.

We have allowed small minorities to blackmail the country for long enough. Show zero tolerance: arrest all troublemakers and impound all vehicles illegally causing disruption. The law is for everybody -- not just for the law abiding citizen!

@maria dolores fenech You seem to favor VIOLENCE ! do Comment, but with Sense, So Silly comments like this !

Just a thought.....
Would these people below who are congratulating Mr Gatt have reacted in the same manner if a Labour govt did the same thing? Or would they call him 'dictator', 'return to Mintoff era' etc......

Well done. Civilized Malta is behind you.

Frozen in time, and too scared to come out. Subsidies never help anyone. No economy can ever function properly on the back of subsidies. Heavens forbids that we should ever need to have subsidies, let alone having them for so long. It's a pity that so many governments, even in the west, continue to resort to subsidies for prolonged periods of time, causing irreparable damage, not only on a national, but even on an international scale. Subsidies amount to economic poisoning, and every government should strive to eliminate them.

Well Done Austin!!! About time someone stood up for the long suffering public!!! If the police cant control these yobs, bring in the AFM!!! Maybe we are heading for a long deserved consumer led revolution.

Ha Ha Ha!

'Yes Minister'......... they are only ,,,,,,,,,,,'Fools and Hearses'

Go ahead Austin. Don't give up.

Minister Gatt has surpassed even himself this time round. Incredible! You have my utmost respect!

Well done to the Government for its stance! Bus drivers must realise they have had it too good for too long! To add insult too injury, besides striking (apparently illegally) they have the gall to block roads and go round the island dementedly honking their horns. The din in Sliema all morning today was disgraceful. If there is a law against noise pollution every one of them should be fined!
Maybe it's time that Government consider taking over the bus service and bring some standards and uniformity into the quality of public transport vehicles.

this is why a large number of people gave you their number 1 vote, because you've got guts. show them austin you will not succumb to them!!!! you have the maltese people 100% backing!!

Well Done Minister Gatt - We are behind you - let's put these cowboys in order!

The vast majority of the people are yearning for a decent public transport. These brothers of ours with their gestures, big bellies out, obscene words are not capable of doing this. They just are not capable. They were given many chances and they failed miserably. No wonder, seeing them today. So get on with it and import buses immediately once we are at it. The whole nation, less of few of course, are behind the government. And let us also thank the oppostion for backing the government. Well done. Perhaps, and only perhaps we may now (I said ''may'') move forward. We are ready to suffer for some time but get on with it. We have to go through this.

It is about time that we get our public transport liberalised. It is shameful to know how much subsidy these bullies are getting and what poor quality service they still provide. Aren't we all workers like these bus drivers? What's so special about the transportation industry? Other Maltese citizens have to compete to earn a decent living....so why not you guys?? I wish I can use the public transport more frequently but I find it so difficult to do so here in Malta. The attitude is wrong. Well done government. Please stop all subsidies these people get...they're citizens just like us...so why treat them differently???

It's time we call off some people's bluff. Keep it up Minister, the people are behind you. Elected representatives only are the people with national responsabilities and expected to take national decisions.

Mr Austin Gatt seems like the majority of the Maltese public is behind you, stick to your guns and don't let these tugs bully you, maybe for a change no more paroli si fatti no from a politician, what a fresh change of pace. Free enterprise mean more choices and lower prices for the consumer. Maybe the Maltese people are tired of the same old politics and are willing to change.

If the country is losing money with the current system. Sell the system to some Italian company. As long as the drivers are rehired by such company. The owners must get compensated too. Now we will start making money instead of losing, probably with better equipment.

Well done for the action taken by the government. we cannot keep giving out subsides and in return we get a poor service from the Bus drivers and when there is a dispute related with transport they will go on strike too.

Am I in a DREAM??? This is the first time that I heard that the Government pay so much per day for diesel. Also for their INSURANCE....What the hell is goin on??? and for me disable I have to pay the full price for diesel and the full ammount of the cost of my insurance....Bus drivers you realy have a face of the step of the court house....what a cheek. If you want my vote please never give up dear Qatt and I recommend that you finaly you will start b liberising buses too as a Maltese citizen I am sure I deserve better busses and better service.....you know what the english saying say....f..... them all

Well done government, don't let them bully you. I'm suffering without transport - but i'm behind the governments decision all the way. I'd have taken away their licenses as well. Not only do they give a bad service the whole year round, but they're now making a further nusience of themselves by holding up traffic and denying the public a service. It's about time this issue was tackled. Why should we put up with such bad service and such rude arrogant people?

Why not €60,000 today, €120,000 tomorrow, €240K the day after and so on. Than strike will really hurts.

Good to know where our taxes are going eh!!! Well invested. If they drag the protests for at least another 4 days as the rumours are the government will save about € 240,000 in subsidies!!! And by the way why does he give them subsidies, wasn't it enough financing their new coaches and sending some of them abroad to attend a customer care course?

Well done Austin.

I hope that the decision to stop subsidizing bus drivers' insurance is final and permanent. Why should anyone's insurance be subsidized ?

If this strike serves to get rid of unnecessary government subsidies it will have been very beneficial for our nation's productivity in the long term.

finally - a gutsy decision which the entire population should applaud. Next step - get these cancer spreading vehicles off our roads!!

At last, thanks to Victor, my taxes will not be given anymore to a non-existing public transport service. The government should privatise the public transport too so, finally, in 2008, we will start availing from a decent, professional and clean public transport system.

It looks like they got they pockets full now. Otherwise they wouldn't have striked during the peak season.

On a positive note, the roads were much safer today will no taxis on the road :-)

Well done Dr Gatt

Keep it up until they come to their senses. We are all behind you.

Epic Win! +Respect to Government and ADT! Theese bus drivers have defied us for the last time! They can accept the change, or go and stuff it!

You never let us down Dr. Gatt!!! You know exactly how to handle these thugs. It is shameful that at the beginning of the 21st Century, these people still have to resort to violence in order to try to make Government give in to their unreasonable demands. We deserve to get the best service at the cheapest price. Only competition can guarantee this to us. I LOVE YOU AUSTIN POWERS!

Proset ADT, now come up with something else for deter them from retaliating.

The main problem with the local public transport situation is not the bus owners/drivers. The real problem lies with a weak ADT that has repeatedly failed in its mission to reorganise public transport.

Dr Gatt keep it up....please..please ...this is Parlament's finest hour....

...and yes Mr Spiteri you have one way to be remembered as a gentleman...RESIGN.

Well done both to the Govt and to the ADT!

without government subsidy public transport would die a natural death. Free competition in this sector and without govt. subsidy would mean more than double the present fair. I am a regular user of such a service and I am quite satisfied about the service offered.

I think arrogance only breeds confrontation and misery

Well done to Dr. Gatt (or better Dr. Guts)!!! After all they are subsidised to give a service to the public and they should not get taxpayer's money for creating this havoc!

Today I realised what the greatest disadvantage of monopolies is... BULLYING!!! If only there was another transport association, the burden caused would have been much much smaller! So that makes the way forward clear...

We all know what will happen now. The ADT will forgive them the subsidy thing in return to a strike break. Which means, the subsidy will be given just the same. This has happened in the past.

Malta is being kidnapped by a handful of Euro Lovers.

They have to realise that the general public is against them.

Today the subsides, tomorrow all their LICENSES.

We are fed up being treated like little children from these thugs.

Well Done Mr. Minister. Keep it up.

Well done Dr. Gatt for the things you are doing for our country. As an IT student I always admired you in everything you did, you are putting our country where it really belongs.

Well done. Finally we have stopped paying these people to run a rubbish service...and they have the audacity to cite hypocrisy on the government as a rationale for their strike.

Hypocricy? how about those new buses we gave you? you've wrecked them already and now you come complaining?

A pack of monkies could run a more efficient bus service than you lay abouts, its high time Malta got the decent service which we've been paying through the teeth for in tax and fares.

Proset Dr Gatt!

The vast Majority of Malta is behind you! Do not give in to these thugs.

The attached video speaks volume about these people's contribution to Brand Malta!

For those who do not know it, here's Aesop's fable about the Wind and the Sun: The Wind reminds me of minister Austin Gatt and his steamrolling tactics for solving problems: The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.

Well done Dr. Gonzi. Well done Dr. Austin Gatt. It is time that these so called people start respecting the ordinary man in the street and especially the taxpayer. The police did their best to control the situation at Castille, but could have anticipated the situation considering the type of cowboys they are. I sincerely hope the government will not give in because the majority of the population is behind it. The video shows faces and news clips alsoshow bus mumbers. Those infringing the law should be booked like any other citizen.

just read the letter by the legal adviser of ADT stating that the public buses are currently uninsured. This means their presence on the road is illegal. what is the police going to do about this? if i had an uninsured vehicle on the road, i would not be able to drive it immediately and would be prosecuted. what happens in case of an accident?

looking forward to have feedback from the police

Infinite kudos to Austin this time around!

Well done to the government and ADT!! This is the only way forward with these people!! Great Work!!

Why not withdraw their license and make them apply again instead of letting them sell it at E20,000 each. Do not give in Austin you have the public behind you. We should never let physical force win. You have won before and you will win now also because you are doing the right thing.

well done! keep it up...

So now we know for sure, if we had any doubt, that bus owners are subsidised by the Govt on a daily basis the equivalent of Euros 2,100,000 per annum. Who said we should stop subidies to the Drydocks?

Is it the same Govt making payouts to one sector and not to the other? Where is Mr Tony C. Cutajar now? Do you recall people, having this ex PN Mayor of San Gwann appealing to the Govt to stop immediately subsidising the Drydocks.?

Shame. For once aqtawlhom l-ghatx bil-perzut ghaliex qazzewna dawn in-nies. After all they voted to join the EU because of the many benefits. Taste them, lick them now.

Dear Austin

Just Do It !!!!!!!!

I WILL BACK DR. AUSTIN GATT ON THIS MATTER. ITS TIME TO LIBERISE PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND OPEN TENDERS FROM SUPPLIERS FROM EUROPE. WE ARE FED UP WITH THIS TRANSPORT, AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ARE PAYING TAXES TO SUBSIDES THESE TOUGH GUYS, BUT AS THE SAY SKY IS THE LIMIT. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Thank you Dr Gatt.....I do not want my tax money to go to these thugs. Please use my money for an efficient, liberalised, civilised, modern transport service. I deserve this!

Well deserved action.

The Public Transport Association is well aware of the fact that AUSTIN GATT means business.The man has shown that he can bite and that undoubtedly there are more measures in the pipeline despite the reaction of a few parasites. As Spiteri knows too well the strike has no basis at law . So what's the reason for staging this out-of-season pantomime? Austin Gatt does not tolerate stupidities.
Perhaps Spiteri should do the honourable and resign immediately.
TONY FORMOSA

I hope the Government will not back off this time. Monopolies have to end. Our transport system is the worst in the EU by far....and please don't tell me its one of the cheapest. I'd rather pay a bit more and get a decent service.

Tajba Austin!

Finally! Thanks to a decent opposition leader, the country can now go forward. Well done J.Muscat for backing the government in such situations. You will earn repsect.

Where it for your predecessor, he would have backed the drivers.

Just saw the video of the "scuffles outside Castille". All I can say is.....lousy behaviour on the road, lousy behaviour on foot. Aggression, threats and intimidation seem to be their stock-in-trade. This is 2008, not 1908, and the general public has had enough of this outdated monopoly.

I hardly ever agreed with Dr. Austin Gatt's policies. What he did at PBS and Sea Malta was debatable but I guess he deserves credit for the stance he took against PTA. Goverment should always work for fair trading and better customer service. Lets hope that by the end of this legislature we have new buses and adaquate bus routes.

MLeading by example, other Minsiters no guts or ?

Do I get this right? Government subsidises bus drivers ... and bus drivers hurl insults at said government and the people! And strike! I think it's about time these people were controlled!
And to bus drivers, I say this in Maltese: Qed tigdmu l-id li qed tieklu minna! (You're biting the hand that feeds you)

Well done! What's Victor Spiteri going to do now? His bullying tactics are proving futile, and very soon, he's going to be targeted by his own selfish supporters. It was about time somebody calls these bullies' bluff!

War declared......well done Dr Gatt....Malta behind you

Well done!

What goes around, comes around. This is the only language that these cowboys seem to understand.

Go Austin.... Go Austin... Go Austin...

It is high time that something like this happened... if these people would have at least tried to improve the service given to customers I might think differently but at this point I can only say that they have been shooting themselves in foot for some years now.

Well done Minister...