Lowering the bus fares foreigners pay has affected transport revenues. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The forced scaling back of foreigners’ public transport fares to the same level as Maltese passengers’ made a big difference to revenue, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi told Parliament yesterday. But since January 2 the system had carried more passengers and costs had been cut by €200,000.

The more efficient service was also helping to reduce traffic congestion, such as the daily scenes at Marsa which at their peak cost the country around €5 million, Mr Mizzi said.

He said even one bid to run the service would have been a victory after the Opposition’s contention that no operator would bid.

The victory was even sweeter because there had been three bidders, and the way the government had acted had ensured bids were submitted only by serious organisations.

Mr Mizzi was answering a supplementary PQ by the Opposition’s spokesman on transport, Toni Bezzina, who had asked him how he could say sales had increased since January and costs had been reduced when the current operator was losing millions of euros.

To Mr Bezzina’s question about Arriva revenues for the whole of 2013, the minister spelt them out: €1,460,099 in January, €1,475,167 in February, €1,638,568 in March, €1,952,564 in April, €2,058,295 in May, €2,150,358 in June, €2,438,553 in July, €2,486,079 in August, €2,171,748 in September, €2,207,080 in October, 1,678,411 in November and €1,510,076 in December.

In comparison, ticket sales to date this year were €1,379,728 in January, €1,333,142 in February and €1,572,300 in March.

As he had done on Tuesday, Mr Mizzi said the figure for January included €28,000 in ticket sales on Arriva’s last day in service. Sales for March this year were still provisional pending reconciliation with Malta Transport Services Ltd.

The minister said the people had had to pay the price for the way the former Nationalist administration had raised their expectations with the arrival of Arriva. In its relatively short tenure, the latter had amassed €70 million in losses, but the government had refused to shoulder them and had acquired the company’s assets for just €1.

The service had not stopped and was now more efficient. No workers had been made redundant and more kilometres were being covered.

The state was subsidising the system to the tune of €5.8 million, when Arriva had received €10 million.