Updated: ATP defends its position

(Adds Ministry's reaction)

The Public Transport Association (ATP) claimed this morning that bus fares would go up with the reform announced by the Transport Ministry.

In a statement replying to another issued by the ministry, the bus owners' association it said that although the ministry had denied that the reform would cost €45 million more in subsidies than at present, it was also refusing to say how much the reform would cost.

The surprise would come after the June 6 elections, it said.

The ministry said yesterday that it would proceed with the publication of a public call for offers for the operation of a scheduled bus service and the bus owners’ association could participate under the same conditions as the other bidders.

It said that the model proposed by the association for the current bus owners to continue to operate the service through cooperatives had not been accepted by the European Commission.

But the ATP insisted that this model existed in all the EU countries but the Maltese government did not want to defend the Maltese operators as other governments in Europe had done.

It denied meetings were held with it on the reform and challenged the minister to publish the minutes of such.

In a reply, the ministry said that the ATP's challenge was a ridiculous especially when members of the ATP had expressed their views on the reform publicly during a national conference on the subject. This was apart from the ATP's positions given in writing.

The truth was that the ATP's contribution to the reform was a strike, protests and partisan statements. This was instead of preparing itself and its members to compete in the tender process.

The ministry said the ATP was incorrect when it said it was being excluded from offering an unscheduled service. Prior to the reform unscheduled transport was restricted and bus drivers could not provide a service for tourists. They could now do this. But the ATP had to understand that both in scheduled and unscheduled services, the required level of service was not decided by itself but by the government in the interest of passengers.

The government insisted that the reform would be carried out and a public call for offers by who was interested in providing a service would be issued in summer.

The ATP was invited to organise itself, improve its service and compete for the contract.

It would be clear, however, that if the ATP's expectations were for a 45 million euro subside,for the fares to be accessible to all, the contract would be given to those making more competitive offers.