‘Mizzi living in denial over public transport’ – Opposition MP

Shadow transport minister Marthese Portelli accused transport minister Joe Mizzi of “living in denial” over the disastrous state of public transport.

Speaking in her parliamentary adjournment, she cited Mizzi’s recent interview with MaltaToday in which he insisted that “there’s no disaster” in public transport.

“Is he seriously courageous enough to tell us that there isn’t a disaster?” she questioned. “If this isn’t a disaster, then what is? Is it possible that he doesn’t read the paper and that he doesn’t receive complaints form commuters?

“I certainly receive several complaints - does this mean that the public are more comfortable complaining to the Opposition than they do complaining to the minister?”

She cited letters to the papers, from commuters who described the public transport as “chaotic”.

“Everyone who uses public transport knows how disastrous the service is, and what a massive difference it is from what Mizzi had promised prior to the election,” she said.

Portelli warned that a girl who had just turned 11 was recently denied entrance on a bus, because she only had a children’s tallinja card in her possession, that is valid for children 10 years and younger.

“The driver was just obeying orders, and he’d have had to pay a fine if he had been found out,” she said. “However, why isn’t the bus system capable of charging 75c to an expired children’s card? Until the new card arrives, the girl has to pay €2 every time she catches the bus, even though she still has €19.75 credit in her tallinja card.”

She questioned why Autobuses de Leon have been paid €30 million in subsidies, pointing that this is over and above €0.5 million forked out by Transport Malta in promotion costs for the tallinja card. She also questioned whether the Spanish company is benefitting from subsidised fuel prices from Enemed.

When asked by MaltaToday how he is monitoring the service, Mizzi said that he “ follows buses early in the morning to ensure they’re on time and no abuse takes place".

A clearly bemused Portelli mocked Mizzi, “as though he is some sort of Sherlock Holmes monitoring the buses”.

“We are living in 2016, and if Joseph Muscat can fly to Dubai to rope in investment in a mobile app, then he surely doesn’t need to send Joe Mizzi to personally follow the buses,” she said. “Mizzi’s interview is a complete give-away in that he has absolutely no control over Autobuses de Leon, and that the company can do whatever it pleases, without fear that the minister will fine them.”