Reform: Moving people together

Transport Malta have just informed me they closed negotiations with Arriva on a new public transport service. The targets I set out at the beginning of the talks have been met and, tomorrow, I will be briefing the press on the details. In a few days’ time we will be signing a deal that will engage us in an important partnership for the next several years.

In a few months’ time, new buses, driven by newly trained or retrained drivers, will be picking up passengers from new bus stops connecting new routes in a new network. The contract provides for the service to start within six months of signing but we decided to set the start of the new service for July 3, 2011 to avoid disturbing school transport, which, up to this year, is partly provided by the public transport operators.

This will be a radical change, especially for regular bus users. Our bus network has barely ever changed in 40 years, so the first day of service will be like taking all Maltese commuters abroad to a city they have never been to, trying to learn their way around a transport system they have never used.

Very quickly we will forget how things were in the “old days”. But for a few more months we will continue to experience a bus fleet with an average age of 35 years and with many buses that can celebrate the Queen’s upcoming jubilee as if it were their own.

We are working hard to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible for the regular bus users. Some things will go wrong and we will work to repair the inevitable initial glitches as quickly as possible. We are making sure costs for regular commuters do not go up and we will be out there in full force explaining how the new system works and how to find out the best way to travel. But our eyes are set beyond the loyal customers that, for better or for worse, continued to use the current service, no matter how miserable.

The transition to the new service will certainly be like a spectator sport for non-bus users. But this is not an aesthetic change we are making. This is not the motorised equivalent of a newly embellished public square. The transformation we are working for is in the lifestyle of that non-bus user.

Our eyes are set on those who looked for an alternative and found it in the comfort of their own car. We are not asking anyone to throw their car away. But cars should be used less.

A recent household travel survey found that less than a tenth of all trips in Malta are made by public transport. But we asked car users if they could have – would have – made at least some of their trips by bus if they had a better public transport product to opt for: two out of every five car users said they could have – would have – switched to a bus.

Once the initial glitches are out of the way, we hope to offer these car users just the service they need: comfortable, clean and air-conditioned buses running on routes, hours and frequencies that meet their needs.

It is a myth to expect a bus to be faster than your car. But there are many ways a bus can beat your car: it costs a fourth to take a bus ride than to make the same trip by the cheapest of cars; no need to look for parking; you can read a book on the trip; a little walking to and from the bus stop cannot harm.

From a wider point of view, more bus use will mean less congestion, better air quality, a healthier community, less waste of time and a more productive economy. It is wrong to underestimate the air quality challenge facing us. A study by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority found that maximum levels of pollution in our air are exceeded several times a year in many busy roads. If we do nothing about this – and doing “something” can only have the effect of reducing cars on our roads – we are facing stiff EU fines.

Tomorrow, we are starting the last phase of preparations for the implementation of the reform of public transport. Our aim is to ensure improved mobility by grouping travellers who today make trips on their own behind their own wheel into larger groups on comfortable buses.

Put simply, we look to be moving people together.

Dr Gatt is Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications.