Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said this evening that were it up to him, the bus service would be offered free of charge, if the country could afford it.

Speaking during a Budget discussion on TimesTalk, during which transport was one of the subjects raised, Prof. Scicluna said people had lost confidence in the bus service over the years and measures were need to wean them back.

Reacting to a suggestion (by an Alternattiva Demokratika spokesman) that fuel prices should be kept high as a means to encourage people to use the buses, Prof. Scicluna said the government had gone half way by lowering prices at the pump while also raising excise duty on both petrol and diesel. One should not be apologetic in wanting to discourage traffic.

He said the transport problem had been creeping up on the country and the former government had not done much about it. The problem got worse recently because of the various infrastructural projects and the increase of an estimated 40 cars a day on the roads.

Abroad, he said, the majority of people used public transport for their daily travel.

Shadow finance minister Mario de Marco asked whether it was now government policy to keep fuel prices high to discourage traffic. Keeping the price of fuel high would undermine the economy since fuel was also used by industry and services, including factories and deliverymen.

This government had failed to improve the bus service despite tripling the subsidy given to the new operator. 

He denied that the former government had done little about transport, mentioning the new roads built as part of the Ten T programme as well as bus service reforms. The present government had pushed out Arriva, tripled the bus service subsidy, but not achieved an improvement of service, Dr de Marco said.

He noted that the Opposition had proposed organised free transport for all schoolchildren, not just those in state schools, but the government failed to act.   

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