Improvement in public transport needs traffic-reduction measures - AD

Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party has augured that the new public transport operator will offer an efficient service to encourgae more people to use public transport for commuting.

Ralph Cassar, AD spokesperson on transport, energy and infrastructure said: “It is crystal clear that the acute failure of the public transport system came about as a result of years of neglect. This was followed by a system with longer routes, a chronic shortage of buses and stingy financing of the system.”

Cassar said some quick research of public transport systems in countries and cities for which such systems were key to improving citizens’ quality of life, showed that good systems were heavily financed by public authorities.

“Those who hold the fight against air pollution and disease at heart, those who understand the link between a good system and a better quality of life, and those who understand what a modern public transport system in a modern country entails, realise that substantial public funding is required. These individuals would discuss possible sources of funding instead of engaging in the usual petty politics so common in Malta,” Cassar said.

Cassar accused the Labour and Nationalist Parties of "half truths and childish arguments" in their squabble over public transport, and said that transport minister Joe Miizzi's "game" of giving information in bits and pieces had not been conducive to real dialogue.

Cassar added that the reduction in prices for some tickets, such as the weekly ticket for children and senior citizens and the three-month student ticket were welcome and necessary. He said hat although the price of the two-hour ticket would be reduced substantially, AD would have preferred for the option of a day ticket to remain.

“The more choice of different types of tickets the better to encourage more people to use the system. With different types of tickets commuters can choose the tariff system most suited to their commuting patterns,” Cassar said.

“Additionally, while the system of more expensive tickets if bought on board makes sense, this system will only be fair if it is accompanied by an extensive system of automatic ticketing machines, shops and public transport staff selling tickets all around Malta and Gozo."

AD said it hoped that the promised improvement in public transport would be accompanied by government policies that reduce traffic and prioritise public transport. "The government should abandon its short-sighted policy of road-building and widening, and of more parking in already congested and polluted localities,” Cassar said.