Matthew Xuereb
Bus owners get extra €3m
'Government bound by Constitution to compensate'
Bus drivers will be paid interest on top of a generous €55 million package for their buses should the reformed transport system not kick in by March of next year, under a deal they struck with the government.
The sum is actually €3 million more than the "final offer" made to them by Transport Minister Austin Gatt on Saturday.
But, beyond the extra money, the government also bound itself to a timetable of payment that will see the bus owners being paid 10 per cent of the sum agreed by April 1, another 20 per cent by January 2, 2011 and the rest when the bus licence is withdrawn. However, if this does not take place by March 1, 2011, the government is committed to start paying interest at the Central Bank rate plus 1.5 per cent.
Under the latest compromise deal, the individual compensation agreement has been increased to €103,000 from €98,000 for old buses and €123,000, up from €118,000, for the newer low-floor buses.
The bus owners will renounce to their licence but will instead also get a 10-year guaranteed job paid at least €9,486 a year with the new public transport operators. They now have until 8 p.m. today to sign a contract accepting to surrender their vehicles and the licences.
The Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry had already reacted with "utter disbelief" to the original compensation package, urging the government to use public funds more judiciously.
When announcing the second deal, the Transport Ministry defended the amount being spent, saying it was bound by the country's Constitution to compensate people whose business or land is taken from them.
The bus owners rejected the original offer during a meeting on Monday night.
They made a counter-proposal for compensation of €116,000 for old buses and €140,000 for the low-floor ones, which would work out to a total cost of €62 million to public coffers.
On Tuesday night, three members of the Public Transport Association committee, including president Victor Spiteri, had a six-hour meeting at the Transport Ministry, during which all details were thrashed out and the government accepted to raise its offer to €55 million.
The committee members present signed what had been agreed upon and a declaration stating that they would recommend that their members accept the deal during an extraordinary meeting for bus owners and drivers late last night. The outcome of the meeting was still not known by the time of going to press.
The ministry said that, according to PTA's indications, about 204 of the 340 bus owners would accept to work with the new transport operator.
At present, 508 public transport buses are in operation, of which 131 are low-floor.
The government wants to sell the low-floor buses to the new operator and scrap the old ones, except for those classified as vintage. These can be used to provide sightseeing tours but the owners would not be able to benefit from the full compensation figure.
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J. J. Borg
Jan 28th 2010, 17:52
Such bloated payouts are hard for me to swallow but if that's what it takes to get these people out of our hair once and for all, then so be it.
M Warrington
Jan 28th 2010, 14:22
I sincerely hope that in the new reform, better routes will be created, and bus times extended.. I live in San Gwann and the last bus from Valletta is pretty early, so when my teenagers go to a show or some activity in Valletta, there is no bus to San Gwann. For those of us who live more towards Wied Ghomor, for people to go to work in Swieqi, or for our teenagers to go to Paceville, the only way is either to walk down the valley or use Mum's or Dad's taxi! Otherwise go to Valletta, then take Bus 64 or else walk all the way to the Church, take circular Bus 65, when it only takes literally 2 minutes by car to get to Swieqi through the valley. And then again, there are no buses after 8 pm!!! To make matters worse, our Local Council had the ridiculous idea to create a cat-walk(literally) on either side of the valley, making it impossible to walk on, and narrowing the valley even more which makes it even more dangerous for people to walk through as they have to use the road. The valley is used by many!
Paul Caruana
Jan 28th 2010, 13:07
The plot thickens.....so now the current bus owners have no particular incentive to come to an agreement with the company that would eventually be awarded the tender to use their low floor buses!
In fact the opposite is true.....especially for the owners of the older type buses, they would have every interest to prolong the current system for as long as possible for not only will they stay in employment, they now would get interest payments on their licence indefinately until the new transport system kicks in, when their old buses would be rendered useless.
There are already rumors that some of the tenderers are expressing doubts about the tender conditions, so it is not impossible to think that the final changover might be significantly delayed beyond March 2011.
"Hallas Gus!"
C. Farrugia
Jan 28th 2010, 13:00
Bus drivers and owners have brought this on themselves with the bad service given to the Maltese public through all these years. They have been given a hundered and one chances to reform. A hundered and one agreements have been signed giving them increases tied to condtions of better service. Nothing has changed. It is good that Minister Gatt had the courage to show them to door.
mary agius
Jan 28th 2010, 12:12
The government seems to be very generous and is trying too hard to please the bus owners, some of whom are so arrogant that they give Malta a bad name and scare some tourists away. I hope that in their new contracts they are bound to be more courteous towards the passengers, avoid using their mobiles while driving, belch toxic fumes all over the roads, etc... or else their 10-year guaranteed job will be lost or some fine will be deducted from their salary. The imposed conditions should be implemented at all times regardless of who is being punished. They should remember that all these millions of euro come from the Maltese taxpayers' pockets.