Studies still underway for mass transit system

Studies are still underway to assess the feasibility of a mass transit system for the Maltese islands.

A spokesperson for transport minister Ian Borg had nothing to add about any progress on their plans.

“As we had explained earlier this year, detailed studies are currently underway. Once these studies have been finalised, they will be presented to Government to consider the best way forward. Details will be made public at a later stage,” the spokesperson said.

In June 2018 the ministry told MaltaToday that Transport Malta was “nearing the completion of a major detailed study” carried out over the previous 18 months on a possible Mass Rapid Transit solution. The study had to be completed later on in 2018 after which the study was to “be presented to government, to consider the way forward.”

In March 2019, Borg confirmed that studies being carried out by an international consortium commissioned by the government were “at a very advanced stage.” He also confirmed that studies had been commissioned before he took the transport portfolio.

In the same month Transport Malta applied to register “Metro Malta” as a trademark, but when asked on the prospects of a metro, Ian Borg replied that the time was not yet ripe for the government to divulge more information on the subject.

“We’ve been studying in the past year, through an international firm hired by Transport Malta, the possibility and feasibility of a mass transport system for the island. This would preferably be a metro, because of the challenges of travelling on the surface of the island. This, of course, doesn’t mean that there aren’t also challenges when it comes to an underground travel system,” Borg said. He also confirmed that the government had been given the first draft of a plan.

Speaking on current affairs programme Dissett in the same month, Borg said that the cost of such a project would run into the billions and could potentially take up to 25 years to complete.

In the meantime, the government has continued to widen the existing road network with the latest being the Central Link network linking Mriehel, Attard and Rabat which will gobble up 50,000sq.m of agricultural land.