Two former Nationalist transport ministers have expressed serious reservations about the manner in which the 2011 public transport reform was handled, arguing that the big-bang approach was a mistake.
Jesmond Mugliett and Ċensu Galea, who between them spent 10 years in charge of transport, both feel the changes made when Arriva took over were too drastic, pointing especially to the way the route network was overhauled.
Both are familiar with the issues, public transport having been a hot potato for a long time. Before the ill-fated reform launched by the PN-led government in July 2011, the criticism had actually been that successive administrations were treading too carefully and lacked the political courage to grab the bull by the horns.
But Mr Mugliett, who served as transport minister between 2004 and 2008, said the introduction of Arriva brought about a radical change which was never explained or justified.
The new network was no longer focused on a single hub in Valletta, which was significantly scaled down, but introduced interchanges and circular routes. This reform, he said, failed to take into consideration the travel habits and preferences of passengers. “No explanation was ever given that the new routes reflected the travel patterns of the commuters. With the proposed interchanges, simple journeys became more complicated, travelling times became longer and the commuters lost what they were used to without having a better alternative.”
Simple journeys became more complicated, travelling times became longer
Such changes, he argued, should have been introduced gradually after a thorough study. Mr Mugliett poured cold water on expectations that the service would improve with the introduction of bus lanes and better traffic management, saying they were proved over-optimistic.
As for the future, he called for better integration with other forms of public transport such as park-and-ride facilities and ferry services.
He also said a long-term vision was needed for the gradual introduction of modern modes of mass transport such as monorail systems.
He was speaking in the wake of a government deal struck with Arriva under which it quit its 10-year contract prematurely after racking up debts of close to €70 million during its two-and-a-half-year stint in Malta.
As a result the service is being temporarily run by the government, until a new operator is found. In the meantime the government will have to make up for the monthly €2 million losses out of taxpayers’ money.
Mr Mugliett’s predecessor, Deputy Speaker Ċensu Galea, who was transport minister between 1998 and 2004, did not mince his words either. The Nationalist government, he said, had paid the price for trying to change too much at one go through a “big-bang” approach.
The former minister echoed the criticism made by Mr Mugliett on the intro-duction of interchanges, saying that rather than making the network more efficient it made simple journeys more time consuming.
“Another shortcoming was that on popular routes the frequency was drastically reduced, whereas on others where patronage was very low, buses were running much more frequently,” he said.
Rather than the routes themselves, the real issue before the reform was the quality of the service.
“Had I been in charge of the reform, I would have started off with the old routes and maybe introduced route changes along the way.”
The real problem, he added, was not Arriva itself but the financial viability of the service. The new routes which the current government is keen to introduce, coupled with the extra buses and drivers needed to cover the addi-tional one million kilometres of the revised network, would lead to the need for a sharp increase in the annual subsidy for the public tran-sport operator.
“In such a scenario the only streams of revenue would either be from higher fares or subsidies,” he said.