Bus owners plan protest action

Public transport route buses would stop at 8 p.m. every day as from Monday in protest at the "threats" being made by the Malta Transport Authority over the installation of bus ticketing machines, the Public Transport Association said.

The PTA said it would resort to a strike if the authority persisted with threats rather than discussing issues around a table.

The association claimed that the authority chairman was threatening bus owners that they may be prevented from working unless they allowed bus ticketing machines to be installed.

It also said the authority was threatening to withdraw the offer of a subsidy to purchase new low floor buses.

The government was insisting that ticketing machines, which are already in Malta, must be installed on buses by the end of the year, Transport Minister Censu Galea said when contacted, adding he was confident that the deadlock would be broken.