The House of Representatives yesterday gave a second reading to a Bill which extends the powers of the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) in line with EU directives and norms. The Bill was introduced by Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett on Tuesday.
Charles Buhagiar, opposition spokesman on transport and the infrastructure raised a series of questions about the functions of the ADT.
He asked if, following these amendments, Mepa approval would still be required to change the road alignment, for example. He asked if Mepa's function to determine where to have roads would be retained or become the ADTs.
Mr Buhagiar called for better road design to improve safety and traffic flow and also insisted that the Valletta bus terminus needed to be urgently upgraded. Nowhere else did passengers have to wait for their bus without shelter.
Mr Buhagiar asked what the ADT was doing to encourage people to use subways. Indeed, what was it doing to increase the number of subways? And what had become of plans for a footbridge over a section of the Mrieħel bypass?
Whose responsibility were the speed and parking cameras? It seemed some were being installed by local councils and others by the ADT. While these were aimed to kill speed, it appeared that in many cases, they could be sources of revenue.
Mr Buhagiar asked the minister to explain what progress, or otherwise, had been registered since the new parking scheme was introduced in Valletta. While the Controlled Vehicular Access scheme to Valletta had been meant to reduce pollution, the opposite was happening because more cars were moving in and out instead of being parked there all day long.
Although the system had dedicated places for residents, these were not enough.
Another problem the CVA did not solve was that of loading and unloading. Although the commercial heart of the city had been pedestrianised there were no loading and unloading bays.
Mr Buhagiar observed that one of the public transport solutions being proposed by the EU was for the creation of private-public partnerships. There should not be any difficulty for the ADT to also invest in public transport.
The Labour MP insisted that traffic management should become more professional. The ADT should set standards and specifications for all signage and traffic calming measures and ensure they were applied in a uniform manner. Although local councils were responsible for road maintenance they could not come up with measures which were against the regulations. Enforcement should not be just on vehicles but also on traffic management.
Notary Marie Louise Coleiro Preca insisted that the bus service should reflect present-day needs.
Families living away from village cores were suffering a lack of public transport, the outskirts of Siġġiewi and Qormi being prime examples.
The lack of loading and loading signs and bays was causing traffic congestion as heavy vehicles had to stop in the middle of the road to unload merchandise.
It was not right to expect workers to walk long stretches with their heavy loads, she said.
Ms Coleiro Preca complained that the ADT was dragging its feet in making the necessary arrangements for the compensation to people who their land expropriated for the building of streets.
Labour MP Noel Farrugia argued that fines were not serving to improve traffic management but were more akin of taxation. This Bill would further increase the enforcement powers of the ADT, but he felt that enforcement should come through proper education campaigns.
And the people also expected proper services and facilities, such as proper bus termini and proper roads.
In this context Mr Farrugia complained of shoddy workmanship and poor design at the Mtarfa bypass and called for a proper inquiry, especially over the way foundations were built without proper consideration for rainwater drainage. At St Paul's Bay, a section of the bypass was still closed after a collapse years ago.
Furthermore, many pavements were poorly designed and allowed no access for wheelchair-bound people.
Labour MP Stefan Buontempo said that although progress had been registered, Malta still had a lot of work to do for its roads to be safe.
He complained that there was far too much congestion on the roads leading to Mater Dei during rush hours.
Furthermore, he complained that law enforcement was not uniform. Why was it that roads in front of schools were closed, but some people, such as a minister's or a magistrate's driver were still allowed to drive through?
Mr Buontempo said the police needed to better support those who respected the law from those who thought they could do whatever they pleased on the roads.
Joe Mizzi said that the government had created a myriad of authorities but the stated objective of improving efficiency and accountability had not been achieved.
This Bill broadened the role of the Transport Authority and provided for an Appeals Board. Technically these are steps in the right direction. The authority did not have a track record of transparency.
And as for efficiency, not only had Malta not been rid of potholed roads, but cracks were developing in the new ones. And it was well known how road building projects inevitably went over budget and were completed late. Yet no one was held accountable.
The ADT had also been embroiled in scandals and much could be said about the manner promotions were given.
Winding up, Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett referred to the comments by Mr Buhagiar . He said Mepa would retain the responsibility to scheme the roads in the structure, local and other plans and the alignment of roads also remained a Mepa function. Applications for development permits would still be necessary and even Environment Impact Assessments would be needed in major projects. The minister said that the ADT was responsible for arterial roads, it planned and designed them and this was reflected in the Bill as proposed. As regards speed cameras, the minister said some of the revenue collected from infringements was being retained by the ADT for road safety campaigns. Turning to the Valletta parking scheme Mr Mugliett said he did not agree with Mr Buhagiar that this was leading to congestion, there were less cars in the city and the only point where there was congestion at certain times was near the Education Ministry. Pollution had also been reduced. And although there was still a lot of parked cars, a lot of illegal parking had been removed and residents had 25 per cent of all parking spaces in Valletta reserved for them. The ADT was now working on improving access, especially for loading and unloading vehicles. However, it was impossible for every shop to have a loading and unloading bay because this would drastically reduce the parking spaces in the country. Turning to road building, Mr Mugliett said that while no one was perfect, the new roads were well built. They were safer than the older ones, and did not flood easily.
Furthermore, the government was keeping its promise to build 600 roads in residential areas. Mr Mugliett said that when speaking on cost and time overruns, Mr Mizzi seemed to have forgotten that there had been cost overruns in all the Labour government's projects. Current overruns were often the result of unexpected work which needed to be carried out.
The Bill was given a second reading.