After seeing public transport use slide to a fraction of the population, the government has high hopes for the reform under way and wants to eventually have half the Maltese using the buses.

"In 1998, about 11 per cent of the people used a bus to get around the island but we want this to increase to the EU average of 45 to 55 per cent thanks to the transport reform," Transport Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday as he admitted that, since 1998, the number of bus passengers had continued to decline.

He was speaking at the launch of the National Household Travel Survey, a review the government hopes will inform policy making and serve as a benchmark for the reform.

The survey was sent to 18,000 households, amounting to 13 per cent of the population, who, on Wednesday, will have to keep note in a trip diary of all their movements for the day and those of this weekend.

The transport authority hopes it will provide vital information about people's travel behaviour.

The survey is carried out in many countries. Two such surveys have already been held in Malta: in 1989 and another in 1998. This year's survey will also ask for more information about people's perception of public transport.

Use of public transport decreased from 24.3 per cent in 1989 to 11.4 per cent in 1998. Over the same period, the number of car drivers increased from 41.3 per cent to 58.4 per cent.

The data will be used to formulate policies for car parking, reduce air pollution and create incentives to use public transport. Also, depending on the survey's results, the new bus routes might change, Dr Gatt said.

The adjudication of tenders for the new operator of the bus service was suspended last month after one of the companies excluded from the short list filed an appeal.

Speaking about the government's plans to implement the reform by the end of this year, Dr Gatt said they would do their best to meet that deadline: "We will have to wait for the decision of the appeal."