The Public Transport Association, which represents the bus owners, said today that while it was never against the emission testing of route buses, it could not accept the mistaken specifications being adopted by VRT stations and Transport Authority officials.

PTA president Victor Spiteri said that for these specifications to be adapted to all heavy vehicles in Malta, the last reading should be based on 2,500 revs and not 3,000 revs, since in Malta the engines of heavy vehicles did not exceed 2,500 revs except for large private cars with petrol engines.

Reacting to the report by the Malta Standards Authority on emissions testing, Mr Spiteri, said the MSA had not noted the technical mistake in the standards for the calculation of emissions from heavy vehicles, issued by the ADT.

The MSA had also not noted that equipment at VRT stations was not being used properly. He said the association was enclosing the copy of a VRT report on idle and peak RPM. He said the association was surprised to learn that the reading was based on three samples of which the last was on 3,000 revs. Yet 3,000 revs should apply for private cars and not heavy vehicles.

Mr Spiteri said the MSA should long ago have observed that the tests on the pre-1979 bus engines were too generous. Thus the government could have continued its 1995 agreement on the replacement of buses.

On the recommended introduction of seals on fuel pumps, Mr Spiteri said these already existed and were regularly inspected by the ADT.