Talks on transport liberalisation start

Consultation meetings on the liberalisation of taxis and mini-buses started yesterday between the Transport Ministry, the Mini-bus Coop Services Ltd and the White Taxis Amalgamated.

During the meetings, Transport Minister Austin Gatt explained the government's belief that the number of licences had to increase.

The meetings, the ministry said in a statement, were cordial and productive. It was agreed that the two organisations (taxis and mini-buses) would call a meeting for their members in order to discuss the different modes of liberalisation that would only take place once the dialogue process was concluded. It was also agreed that talks would continue in the coming days.

The ministry's statement followed another by the Public Transport Federation, signed by president Victor Spiteri, which said that the federation was denying it had ever agreed to liberalisation.

Dr Gatt said it was difficult to understand how Mr Spiteri could issue such a statement on the day when cordial meetings were held with the people who represented the owners of mini-buses and taxis, especially when he had spoken to the contrary only a week ago.

The ministry said that when the federation agreed to withdraw its strike action it had requested an assurance that the licences of taxis and mini-buses and the Blue Grotto ferry boats would only be increased following consultation.

The government agreed with such a request because this was what it had always intended to do.

The federation said its agreement with the government last week was reached just before the army had been due to intervene to take over 100 mini-buses and start operating them. Number plates had already been prepared for this purpose.

The federation accused Dr Gatt of acting in a fashion similar to the late (Labour minister) Lorry Sant who, it said, used to make decisions without consultation, denied people the right to strike and dominated the other ministers and the Prime Minister.

The federation accused the government of being in a state of panic, holding many press conferences in which earlier statements were contradicted.

It mentioned one example in which Dr Gatt had once said that there had to be a population of about 1.5 million for trams to be viable. He was now saying he was waiting for experts from the UK to discuss the possibility of this service.

The minister's vision for the sector, the federation argued, was nothing more than what had been discussed over the past two years between the Public Transport Association, the Malta Transport Authority and the minister at the time. The only thing that had not been discussed then was the proposal that owners should become drivers without any consideration being given to their investment in the sector.

And although the minister claimed that patronage had decreased, this had actually increased by eight per cent or two million passengers over the past two years.

The federation accused the government of not adhering to an agreement signed with the association in 1995 to continue replacing old buses with new ones.