Re-routing public transport from Sliema’s Bisazza Street is “not a major issue at all”, according to Transport Minister Austin Gatt, although discussions are still under way with Arriva to determine how much this will cost.
“We are blowing something totally out of proportion,” he told reporters during a visit of works being carried out at the Buġibba bus terminus.
Other local councils had also requested similar changes and these would be considered too, he continued. No route was set in stone and a system was in place to discuss these matters with the new operator Arriva.
The controversy escalated over the weekend when Labour leader Joseph Muscat quoted media reports saying the government would have to pay Arriva up to €100,000 to re-route its buses after Bisazza Street was pedestrianised.
However, when asked whether this sum was blown out of proportion, Dr Gatt said he was unaware of it.
“I don’t have the figure Joseph Muscat quoted. He probably invented it as well,” he said.
The actual sum will be discussed with Arriva when other routes that eventually need to be changed are changed, Dr Gatt added.
“So they will put everything into the pot and we will see what comes out,” he said.
The government thought that once Bisazza Street was already closed to traffic, the routing change should come now rather than six months later, he continued.
Other changes would take place in six months’ time because a bus network was a dynamic network, he pointed out, accusing people of making a mountain out of a molehill.
For example the Mellieħa local council was discussing whether to make George Borg Olivier Street one way. If they opted for this then the network would also have to change.
“The good thing is, compared to what we used to have with ATP, every time we used to change a route it used to cause hell and I don’t know how many times we had to discuss things,” Dr Gatt said. With Arriva on the other hand, there was a set framework to discuss changes.
In a statement, Labour spokesman for transport Joseph Sammut criticised the government’s lack of planning on the issue and asked Dr Gatt to stipulate the amount of compensation that had to be paid and who was going to pay it.
Dr Gatt was speaking at the Buġibba Bus Interchange, where works are being carried out to get the place in line with plans for Arriva’s introduction on July 3.
Buġibba, he said, would become one of the island’s busiest hubs, with some 18 buses arriving and departing from there every hour.
The interchange system should help people shift from using their cars to using public transport, with 23 interchanges in place spread over the island with the new system.
A household travel survey found that 98 per cent of people who used a car did not go to Valletta, which was one of the reasons why moving outside the capital made more sense, he said. Some 38 per cent of Mellieħa drivers used their car mainly to go around the locality, which was why a local service was being implemented.
“We are not trying to refashion the old system with new buses, but rather changing the infrastructure.”
Reacting to a press statement by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association that expressed concern over the “unnecessary delay” in the works being carried out in the Buġibba bus terminus, Dr Gatt said works were on schedule.