In December 2014, the monorail was touted as the ‘ultimate solution’ for urban mobility in a submission for an EU investment initiative.

Although details of the proposed 79-km route quoted in the document has since been kept under wraps, the Transport Ministry and Transport Malta had been in talks with two architecture and civil engineering graduates six months earlier.

The Maltarail proposal started out as the design brief for a final-year structural engineering project, but Justin Zarb and Luke Lapira developed the project beyond its original scope. Later, an opportunity presented itself to further develop the project as a research paper for TRA Visions Europe, under the tutelage of Odette Lewis.

The idea was then pitched to several interested parties, including Transport Malta and the Ministry. Since then, Zarb and Lapira have been developing the idea and trying to bring on stakeholders to contribute different expertise to the idea.

The duo have published all their work for free online under an open-source licence, hoping to encourage a more informed, transparent discussion.

The entire project is accessible at www.maltarail.org and on http://facebook.com/maltarail .