A permanent link between Malta and Gozo has been a subject of perennial discussion, seemingly wheeled out by politicians at opportune moments to keep Gozitans interested in the political scene. Or perhaps to try and persuade Gozitans that the scene is interested in them.

In essence, this government effectively wasted two years on the issue. In 2011, under a Nationalist administration, Transport Malta had commissioned a report into the link, which concluded that a tunnel was a viable option even though it had to be some 100 metres below sea level due to the composition of the seabed.

When Labour was elected in 2013, it seemed to cast aside those findings and instead embarked on another study, with Chinese assistance, looking into the possibility of building a bridge. Then it finally reached the conclusion last month that a tunnel would be the better option after all. Hooray for progress.

Is a tunnel necessary? Different people will say different things and there is no doubt that, on the whole, the Gozo Channel ferries are extremely efficient. But anyone who needs to make the crossing on a regular basis will tell you that it can take them an inordinate amount of time to get to Malta and back, especially at peak times.

Second question: would a tunnel save drastically on time? In theory, yes, because these people will no longer have to face the agonising prospect of failing to board a ferry because it is full, which means they can operate more efficiently. However, we would need to know how quickly vehicles at rush hour (or Friday nights and Sunday afternoons) could be processed by a tunnel, which it is being said will be single lane.

Does a tunnel make financial sense? The ferries cost a large amount of money to run and their lifespan will come to an end in the coming years. So some kind of an investment will have to be made. A study by economist Gordon Cordina has established that a tunnel is the most feasible long-term option, even though, as carbon geologist Peter Gatt pointed out, no geological test has yet been carried out and this could have a significant impact on cost.

The acid test, of course, is whether the project will ever happen – or whether it will continue to fill newspaper and internet column inches for years on end.

However, there seems to be a wider question that is not being taken into consideration: is all the talk about a tunnel linking Malta and Gozo just proving to be a distraction from what should be an urgent priority for this government – which is establishing if tunnels under Malta can be turned into a realistic transport vision to deal with the ever-increasing traffic problem on the island?

Not only will the traffic issue not go away. On the contrary, irrespective of any band aids the government may choose to apply – or attempts to fob off the public by claiming the problem is only a matter of perception – it is likely to get worse.

We can talk till we are blue in the face about car-sharing initiatives, bus lanes (which due to our road network are severely restricted), and so on and so forth. But while we do so we maybe putting off doing something to find a long-term solution.

If Gozo would benefit from having a tunnel, then surely Malta – which has all the characteristics of a busy city – would too. Or maybe lots of tunnels. What we cannot carry on doing is ignoring the issue.

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