Crunch time on the buses

Bus owners seemed to be shooting themselves in the foot yesterday, targeting the elderly by taking industrial action that will see them suspending the discounted rates which retirees enjoy on bus travel.

Bus owners association president Victor Spiteri said that as from tomorrow the association would be suspending the use of the elderly pass which entitles elderly people to pay a flat rate of 10 cents on any route.

The normal rates paid according to the zone of travel vary between 15 and 20 cents.

Bus owners cannot expect to win sympathy by targeting society's most vulnerable sector, and Transport Minister Censu Galea was quick to brand the action as illegal.

"The fares are established by legal notice," he said. "This is not an issue of industrial action. There is no question on this point and we will take legal action against drivers who will not stick to the fares as established by law."

In a press conference which lasted for around two hours, Mr Spiteri, flanked by association officials, said that if the pending issues are not solved, bus owners will take harsher actions.

The dispute is about the subsidies for the purchase of new buses, the annual subsidies received by the bus owners for their operations, and the introduction of the bus ticketing system.

Mr Spiteri denied statements by the Public Transport Authority that the association had asked for a Lm2.5 million subsidy for this year. He said the association was asking for subsidies of around Lm1.2 million.

But Mr Galea yesterday evening confirmed that the association was asking for Lm2.5 million in subsidies.

In another development, informed sources said the office of the auditor general yesterday started an auditing exercise of the accounts of the Malta Transport Association, which manages the income and expenditure of funds related to the public transport service.

The chairman of the Malta Transport Authority, Charles Demicoli yesterday said it was about time for the country to have an adequate public transport service and invited the bus owners' association to start serious talks on how to make the public transport service "effective, modern and adequate for this day and age".

According to the sources, this is the first time that the authorities have admitted a need to order an audit to assess the financial situation of the association.

The association has accepted that the audit will take place and the exercise started yesterday at the association premises.

The present system guarantees a certain income to the association. Subsidies are given on the basis of an agreement which ensures a guaranteed income, with the government underpinning the bus owners' income when this does not reach the "guaranteed" level. The sources said the bus owners association this year was asking for a record Lm2.5 million in subsidies, a sharp rise over the Lm500,000 it had received in 2001 and the Lm750,000 of last year. Over the past five years the association has received Lm3 million in subsidies.

The sources said that figures of passenger patronage of public transport as well as the amount of subsidies that the bus owners were receiving clearly showed that the existing public transport system was in need of radical changes.

Figures showed a serious drop in the public transport service's patronage, with the annual number of passengers using the buses dropping by around four million between 1998 and 2002.

The number of passengers who used the public transport in 1998 had reached 33,292,160, going down last year to 29,557,340.

But Mr Spiteri yesterday expressed complete disappointment that their proposals on how to iron out the current difficulties have been rejected by the authorities.

Mr Spiteri said their proposals included the granting to another 30 bus owners the chance to buy a new bus and benefit from government subsidies. There are 430 bus owners who between them own 508 buses. Of the owners, 147 had applied to each get a government subsidy of Lm32,000 to buy a bus according to specifications issued by the authority.

For the 147 buses alone, the government would have to fork out Lm4.7 million in subsidies at a time when the number of passengers is dwindling. A further 30 buses will cost the government another Lm1 million. But the government is arguing that when all the 147 new buses are in Malta, it will review whether more new buses are needed.

On the issue of the bus ticketing machines, the government wants to introduce the bus ticketing system on July 14 but the bus owners are threatening not to operate the system. They are arguing that the authorities have to take measures ensuring security against fraud of the system before it can be introduced.

However, the authorities are arguing that the system will be introduced next week and modifications will be made if problems are encountered in its running.