PM inaugurates trackless 'train'

I cannot believe my eyes,whats all the fuss , a buisness man joined another or others in a venture, no jobs for the boys as far as I can see, no goverment contracts, Theresa Gauci maybe you can come out with a bright idea and make some money. All I can say is that an Arab country has had thses road trains for the last 10 years at least. Also I fear that we have people in Malta trying to imitate Dr Alfred Sant, as he was allways saying NO to everything.Maybe it's time to get rid of them too.

"moves at a maximum speed of 25 kilometres per hour"

Oh so that means when it's on the already existing roads, it's just going to cause more traffic then actually benefit us.

Nice idea of an attempt to bring trains back into Malta, but it's still quite pointless.

ara xi hlew .. ghandna c cuccu train issa wkoll .. ara veru m ghandiex f hiex nonfqu l flus iktar f dal pajjiz .. hawn xi bazuzlu iehor biex naraw x nivvintawlu ????? !!!!! .. jobs for the boys are still on and on and on !!!!

There was a real railway in Malta at one time.
this is just a cutesy pastiche of one.
a good start none the less.

@ all Moaners

@ all Moaners @ all Moaners !!

Stop making fool's of Yourself's And be Seious for ONCE !
ENJOY THE CICCU TRAIN, THIS CICCU IS A Bomba

What is the fuss about the word Italia. Maybe we should send all our food that says Italia on it. Maybe we should send all the clothes that says Italia on it. People all over the world. Tend to buy something that says made in Italia on it. The world trusts the Italian brands. Do you blame the world?Where is the sympathizers? I need help?Are these guys racists too?Are we Christians? How can we say such things about the poor Italians?Look the Armani"s( Italian boat people)are coming. Come on guys it's only the world ITALIA. That's it guys no more carcading when they win the world cup OK. Soon to come, Italians transport buses.

A big well done for all those who thought about this new venture. The area of Rabat, Mdina and Mtarfa deserves more promotion and attention for all its historical and archeological attractions. It is appropriate that a first in Malta is inaugurated in this area. This train will enhance the remarkable charms that are found in the various monumental landmarks of Rabat and Mdina.

Lets call it what it is - a bus and a very slow bus

WOW!!! What an invention! I bet that it belongs to someone who "deserves" it!! Here in Malta we are masters in inventing the right things for the wrong places! I bet that those who are praising this initiative know nothing of the traffic mayhem at Rabat! Go to their website, have a look at the the journey this train will follow and you will see what I mean!! It will pass through the narrowest streets of Rabat where not even one car can pass easily (the streets that lead from the square to and past the Catacombs) Then its on to Nigret(attracations?) and from there to INSIDE MTARFA (to show them the contstruction taking place on archeological sites by the Housing Auth.) and down through the narrowest and most dangerous part of Mtarfa (the road overlooking Mosta) where seated passengers will only see the boundary wall but the train be a sitting duck of danger(at least the "power" of this train brought some road patching!)

And then all this in an area like Rabat and Mdina were all the historic sites are within walking distance and would allow the visitor to enjoy the charm of unique towns!

Yeah right R Pace. The parliament should discuss a law about moaning. That is why things have improved so much in these last decades. Every form of critisism is taken as moaning, moaning and more moaning. And I'm going to keep doing it no matter what you say.

Do we have to Blah Blah on every little field mouse that peeps it's head out of it's nest?
Why all this fuss about this innovative little train? I think we should get more of these innitiatives if we do want the tourist to keep visiting our Islands. When we are abroad we tend to encounter much more unusual attractions which muse us when we return home and talk about. So why is it that when we see something new here we have raise evey polemic possible and raise much ado about nothing?
I congratulate the new entrepreneurs for their idea and I am sure the Authorities issued an Operating licence for it's operation accordingly. Let's all try to learn to be less polemicly orientated in this country and let others take care of their bussines without poking our noses into anything which comes our way.
Well done I hope to see more of such innovations and attractions. I'd rather see a beautiful train running on our roads, than hundreds of Tower Cranes peppering our landscapes!

Congratulation PM of Malta the chu chu train might come in handy when there is a transport strike. Well buses beware. The word Italy on the front, may be in Italy don't know how to spell Malta.

Nothing wrong with the train. Most tourist attracting countries have them. You will see them in Nice and VilleFrance also, if I am not mistaken there is one at the Rinella film studios and it takes tourists around. I rode on it. It is blue and white and has the eight pointed cross on the front.
But that 'Dotto Trains castelfranco V. Italy has to go maybe put it on a small plaque on the side of the train somewhere.

@Yvo Hessleman should your company have built this train, then you could put Germany, Malta or whatever you want. Since an Italian company built it, they have a right to put Italia on their brand name. They are proud people, and they should be, what can I say. I put the Maltese cross on my invoices in the USA.

It was great to be in Rabat this evening and see this added attraction to the local tourism product. It was also wonderful to see so many families enjoying themselves trying it out. As for all the moaners and whiners and DNA perfect breed, let us DNA defective individuals enjoy life.

I admire and congratulate the young entrepreneurs behind this initiative.

What's the sweat? Sounds good fun to me. Erm, is this the place to vent; couldn't we find something more cogent - erm, Jason, fuel bills, JPO, the inability of the Prime Minister to address the genuine grievances of the people....the apparent difficulty to answer the legitimate questions of the people honestly? ....

How pathetic!

My goodness, what a pack of groaners and moaners you all are! Get a life, all of you!
Of course there should be ITALY written on them - they were MADE IT ITALY!

And how many trains should we have in order to make the Shipyards stay open?!!!!

@ Mario Mifsud - it seems that neither do you!

A trackless train bearing DOTTO TRAINS CASTELFRANCO V. ITALY has been inaugurated by our Prime Minister!!! Really; some people are having bad times. Oh Lord! How they're being tortured!!! This hallucination is interrupting their train of thoughts..................

More like a Trackless Brain.

what a sad story indeed . the country is concerned about illegal car registration tax, illegal departure tax, the environment watchdog mepa is operating the other way round, high fuel surcharge and the pm goes to inaugurate a TRACKLESS train... seems more a trackless government since he has nothing else to do on a Friday night

Moan, Moan and more moaning!!!

After a thought you guys might be right about the cross..
Still don't like Italy on the front of it though. But lets end that discussion as it's not a big issue. The initiative is great. But even I don't understand why the PM himself had to inaugurate something like this. I mean, if it were some new railway system then it would make sense.

Yeh! great idea!
A Maltese cross on Thomas the Tank Engine!
Do you mean cross as in cross?
Or a cross Maltese?
Oh dear!
The second option would be quite intriguing! a crowd puller I would think!
Warts n all maybe!

You better inaugurate an underground system to all of us Mr Prime Minister not some amusement park chu-chu train for tourists

I have been on trains such as this in Slovenia, Croatia and elsewhere. They are made by the same Italian company, Dotto Trains. Nobody has replaced the word Italy with anything else!! Trust us Maltese to invent something like this!!

@Mr/Mrs d'amato:
I know the train is built in Italy! But it's going to operate in Malta and not in Italy. Does Italy have to sit there so prominently on the front? Better put the Maltese cross there for example.. The buses are not built in Malta and even they don't have England or China written on the front.

One good thing about the comments in today's paper.....they prove that we normal Maltese beings still have a sense of humour inspite of reality!

what about when it start raining looks like something out of Thomas the tank engine.

Has the famous "Registration Tax" been paid on this import?

@D. Fenech and tony caruana

Re. transport I came to the conclusion that

Children's work for Lawrence
Tough work for Austin.

Agreed D. Fenech. I expect the Rabat Local council to inaugurate such things (just to give a name), not the Prime Minister himself!

I didn't like the "Italy" thing in front. Imagine it was made in Hong Kong or China... don't care who built the "train". Do you get Japan printed in bold on your bonnet for a Toyota ?

If this is to be run on the roads used by normal traffic, a few minor questions:
Has it got a Road Tax Disc and Insurance, Licence Plate Number?
I see lights but has it got indicators
What power unit is it?
It actually looks like an "off road" vehicle for amusement parks.

was under the impression that the Priminister has more urgent business to attend to!

So did I ! but apparently Not.

I do see the commercial point of the train. But did it require the Priminister to inaugurate it!
I was under the impression that the Priminister has more urgent business to attend to!

Hats off to such a good idea for our tourists. Good choice for keeping it only within the Rabat, Mtarfa & Mdina area. If it had to drive elsewhere, at max 25km/h it might cause some serious traffic congestion.

next in line after the karozzin to keep on blocking the single lanes created by lack of planning

to mr hesselman
I think that the only think that italy is written on the front of the train is cos where it was built!!!!

I'm wondering - couldn't such trains be built in the Malta Shipyards?

Visit www.melitatrains.com

Well done, just a little thing though.. There is Italy written on the front of the train.. Being a train in Malta, this could be removed/replaced..

As usual, we get half information. How much is the ticket to ride this train?