The Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Dialogue hosted the Civil Society Committee (CSC) within MCESD to discuss their proposals for the improvement of the bus service in our country.
In light of free public transport, increases in demand, and the fact that the transport ministry together with the operator and the regulator is analysing routes, frequencies and the number of buses the country needs in order to ensure that the public has a realistic choice between using their private car or using public transport, a number of meetings with social partners have commenced in order to discuss any necessary changes.
The Civil Society Committee put together a number of proposals intended to improve the service, and these, together with a collection of the experiences and suggestions from the public, were presented to Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Aaron Farrugia and the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Dialogue Ellul.
Minister Aaron Farrugia welcomed the news that MPT reached 50 million passengers in 2022, thus breaking its own record of passengers in 2019. He also noted that the MPT saw an increase of 40% last year when compared to the previous year.
“It is encouraging for government to see that our measures are leaving an impact, particularly the investment of millions of euros for free public transport,” stated Minister Farrugia. He explained that the process to electrify the bus fleet and thereby reducing emissions has commenced, and they have also started exploring improvements in the routes and frequencies as well as an increase in bus lanes.
“This will result in greater investment on the part of government, but this is the way to offer better and more realistic alternative for those who are prepared to opt for public transport over their private car. Today we are meeting with the Committee and will continue to discuss with various stakeholders to ensure any changes are well received,” concluded Minister Farrugia.
From his end, Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul praised the initiative by the Committee not only to study this sector, but also to incorporate feedback from the public when drafting their proposals.
“I believe that this is how social dialogue in our country should function: government should listen to people and their recommendations, and if they are good, implement them,” stated the parliamentary secretary. He added that currently, the government is working on the reform of the MCESD and certainly this practice will become part of the Council’s functions.
Present for today’s meeting were representatives from Transport Malta (TM) as the regulator and Malta Public Transport (MPT) as the operator since 2014. This was also the first meeting of Perit David Xuereb as the new Chairman of MCESD.
Source: Office of the Prime Minister