An outline of the shape which public transport will take was given last week by the Transport Ministry. It is based on cutting the number of public buses from 508 buses to 270, getting better new ones and operating them from a number of hubs in different localities. The proposal, not yet finalised, was immediately shot down by a number of bus owners. A wider number made it known to anyone who would listen that they had not been properly consulted before the proposal was placed before the public.
The minister in charge of public transport, Austin Gatt, said that the proposal was not written in stone. Which means some details might be changed but - he emphasised - doing nothing is not an option.
That statement seems to have become this particular minister's watchword. In essence, he's right. Various sectors are in need of fundamental change, following which adjustments as required have to be ongoing. Public transport is one of them. Whether being right in the objective is also being right with the details, is another matter. Public transport has defied progress over the years, even as it lost its custom steadily. The ministry says the decline was from 65 million passenger trips a year in the 1970s to 32 million in recent years.
Steps to reorganise transport have very obviously not been successful, whether in regard to routes or in the types of buses imported in recent years at massive public cost. Those efforts left the Valletta bus terminus as the hub of the prevailing system. The new proposals will aim to break that up. Buses will use nodes to be set up in Paola, Marsa, Rabat, Mosta Technopark, Birkirkara, Mater Dei Hospital, Luxol and Buġibba.
No estimate of the cost involved in changing the buses or of who will bear that cost has been given. It is clearly implied, however, that the older buses will be scrapped. Nostalgia should play no role in this regard. Too many of the old buses belch out in the most unfriendly manner against a clean environment. The proposals include buses of various sizes and engines that will be Euro III compliant, as well as electric and low-floor buses.
If we do get EU-compliant and "green" buses it should make a difference, both in terms of the environmental impact as well as the attraction to utilise a better transport system. Whether the opportunity will be taken to move away from large buses to a size or sizes more consonant with the size and quaintness of the island remains to be seen. As does the likely cost to users whom the system must attract if it is to survive at all, even after it has been thoroughly reorganised.
The Transport Minister had some disappointing news for those of us who hope to see a metro laid down to cover the main parts of Malta, as well as a tram system. He pointed out that Malta has a higher number of cars per capita than the EU and Japan, and just slightly lower than the US and a significant proportion of household spending - 16 per cent - goes towards transport. An estimated 71 per cent of trips in Malta are made with private cars, said the minister. (Consequently) an efficient public transport system is fundamental to the country's economic and social success, he held.
That system, however, will not be complemented by a metro or tram system. A consultant who took part in the discussion gave a presentation on the potential of introducing a tram service in Malta. He considered the introduction of trams on two routes: between Valletta and Sliema, and one between Valletta, Birkirkara and Ta' Qali.
The 14 trams on these routes, he was reported as saying, would operate between 6 a.m. and midnight with journeys of 15 minutes for the first route and 21 minutes for the second. The investment in this service would need to be hefty at between €205 and €325 million to set it up and around €7.2 million a year for maintenance and operating costs.
Taking that as his cue Minister Gatt said that during the reform discussions, it emerged that a tram and metro system were not viable. To be feasible, he added, the metro needed 50,000 passengers every hour, impossible for a country the size of Malta. A tram system would need a huge investment and 5,000 passengers a day to sustain.
A Swiss friend of mine who read The Times report on the internet could not comment on the outlays mentioned, but was not convinced about the numbers. Basel City, he told me, has a population of 189,238 and an area of 22 square kilometres. It has both trams and buses, managed by the same company. The wider Basel Country supports 269,145 people and has an area of 518 square kilometres. It has a tram company and a bus company and many of its communities are also served by regional trains. The trams run at an average interval of eight minutes (down to three minutes during the morning and evening rush hours) and a one-way ticket for a 30-minute journey costs 3.20 francs (€0.30).
Given the high density of cars in Malta relative not only to its population, but in particular to its size, the time may still come when we will have to go underground in order to take as much traffic as possible off our roads. That will require more study in the future. Meanwhile, it is essential that the coming reorganisation of the public transport system will be the best available in the circumstance, and one that will last us for a fair number of years, taking into account the projected size of the car population.
More consultation is required though, at the end of the day, it is the government that must decide.
The minister in charge of public transport, Austin Gatt, said that the proposal was not written in stone. Which means some details might be changed but - he emphasised - doing nothing is not an option.
That statement seems to have become this particular minister's watchword. In essence, he's right. Various sectors are in need of fundamental change, following which adjustments as required have to be ongoing. Public transport is one of them. Whether being right in the objective is also being right with the details, is another matter. Public transport has defied progress over the years, even as it lost its custom steadily. The ministry says the decline was from 65 million passenger trips a year in the 1970s to 32 million in recent years.
Steps to reorganise transport have very obviously not been successful, whether in regard to routes or in the types of buses imported in recent years at massive public cost. Those efforts left the Valletta bus terminus as the hub of the prevailing system. The new proposals will aim to break that up. Buses will use nodes to be set up in Paola, Marsa, Rabat, Mosta Technopark, Birkirkara, Mater Dei Hospital, Luxol and Buġibba.
No estimate of the cost involved in changing the buses or of who will bear that cost has been given. It is clearly implied, however, that the older buses will be scrapped. Nostalgia should play no role in this regard. Too many of the old buses belch out in the most unfriendly manner against a clean environment. The proposals include buses of various sizes and engines that will be Euro III compliant, as well as electric and low-floor buses.
If we do get EU-compliant and "green" buses it should make a difference, both in terms of the environmental impact as well as the attraction to utilise a better transport system. Whether the opportunity will be taken to move away from large buses to a size or sizes more consonant with the size and quaintness of the island remains to be seen. As does the likely cost to users whom the system must attract if it is to survive at all, even after it has been thoroughly reorganised.
The Transport Minister had some disappointing news for those of us who hope to see a metro laid down to cover the main parts of Malta, as well as a tram system. He pointed out that Malta has a higher number of cars per capita than the EU and Japan, and just slightly lower than the US and a significant proportion of household spending - 16 per cent - goes towards transport. An estimated 71 per cent of trips in Malta are made with private cars, said the minister. (Consequently) an efficient public transport system is fundamental to the country's economic and social success, he held.
That system, however, will not be complemented by a metro or tram system. A consultant who took part in the discussion gave a presentation on the potential of introducing a tram service in Malta. He considered the introduction of trams on two routes: between Valletta and Sliema, and one between Valletta, Birkirkara and Ta' Qali.
The 14 trams on these routes, he was reported as saying, would operate between 6 a.m. and midnight with journeys of 15 minutes for the first route and 21 minutes for the second. The investment in this service would need to be hefty at between €205 and €325 million to set it up and around €7.2 million a year for maintenance and operating costs.
Taking that as his cue Minister Gatt said that during the reform discussions, it emerged that a tram and metro system were not viable. To be feasible, he added, the metro needed 50,000 passengers every hour, impossible for a country the size of Malta. A tram system would need a huge investment and 5,000 passengers a day to sustain.
A Swiss friend of mine who read The Times report on the internet could not comment on the outlays mentioned, but was not convinced about the numbers. Basel City, he told me, has a population of 189,238 and an area of 22 square kilometres. It has both trams and buses, managed by the same company. The wider Basel Country supports 269,145 people and has an area of 518 square kilometres. It has a tram company and a bus company and many of its communities are also served by regional trains. The trams run at an average interval of eight minutes (down to three minutes during the morning and evening rush hours) and a one-way ticket for a 30-minute journey costs 3.20 francs (€0.30).
Given the high density of cars in Malta relative not only to its population, but in particular to its size, the time may still come when we will have to go underground in order to take as much traffic as possible off our roads. That will require more study in the future. Meanwhile, it is essential that the coming reorganisation of the public transport system will be the best available in the circumstance, and one that will last us for a fair number of years, taking into account the projected size of the car population.
More consultation is required though, at the end of the day, it is the government that must decide.