Minister eyes competition in public transport

Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett said yesterday that competition would one day be introduced in the public transport sector, in the same way as it was being introduced in Europe, and the government wanted the bus owners to improve their operation so that they would be able to compete.

Mr Mugliett said 12.5 per cent of the bus service was currently being subsidised. For the future one would need to further discuss how this subsidy was given, on the basis of public service obligation contracts which specified costs according to which categories of the population, and which routes, were being subsidised. The government wanted to continue giving a subsidy but it would like it to go towards capital investment to modernise the service. If patronage was improved, this goal would be possible.

Mr Mugliett was speaking in Parliament during the debate on an Opposition motion to annul a legal notice which brought in higher bus fares as announced in the budget.

The minister rejected complaints that the government had let down students when the higher fares were made applicable to most of them. He pointed out that new direct bus services had been introduced to the university, so that hundreds of students who in the past used to need two buses now only needed to take one. Talks were being held on the introduction of similar services to other major educational centres such as the Junior Lyceum and MCAST.

Mr Mugliett observed that while the government was accused of lacking vision on public transport, none of the opposition speakers had discussed a public transport policy. The Nationalist government had a policy and vision as reflected by the investment made over the years, such as on the modernisation of buses and the introduction of new routes. Lm4 million had been spent on the new buses and Lm1,195,000 on the bus ticketing machines. In contrast, nothing happened under the 1996 Labour government other than that the bus fleet replacement programme was stopped.

It was not true that the fares had been raised to do away with the subsidy. The bus owners' association last year had sought a Lm2.7 million subsidy which, after talks, was whittled down to Lm2 million. The fare increases were expected to yield a revenue increase of Lm1.3 million and a subsidy of Lm1 million for this year had been allocated.

In contrast to the past, when subsidies were given independently of the number of passengers, the subsidy was now capped and the bus owners knew they had to work harder and be more efficient in order to attract more passengers, including tourists.

Mr Mugliett denied that when the agreement with the bus owners was signed, he had said that an increase in fares was not being considered. When negotiating with the association last year, the government's main concern was to close the subsidies issue for that year.

Other issues which were incorporated in the agreement included a code of ethics for bus drivers, new disciplinary procedures, the use of all buses on the routes, training of drivers, and the introduction of new drivers.

It had also been made clear that the prerogative for the establishment of new routes belonged to the Transport Authority.

It was also common knowledge that there used to be abuse in the use of fuel, and the government had made it compulsory for bus owners to retain diesel receipts.

Mr Mugliett said that one of the biggest expenses of the service was the number of buses. Unless something was done to reduce the 508 buses currently used, it would not be possible to contain the cost of public transport for consumers. Meetings, he said, had already been held with the experts and with operators.

He said that university students had recently held a survey to establish the number of them making use of new routes. The study found that these routes were being used by 28 per cent of students.

Indeed the number of passengers using the buses was climbing, with an increase of one million passenger trips between October and December.

Efforts to further raise that number would include a better night service and the new routes. Other plans included the park-and-ride service to Valletta, which would also encourage the use of public transport since parking in Valletta was to be controlled, discouraging the use of private transport.

He also intended to place greater focus on the bus service in Gozo. One could not have a situation of one country, two systems and he would like the service in Gozo to be the same as in Malta. It was unfortunate that the elderly in Gozo did not benefit from cheaper rates through the Kartanzjan. One also had to start discussing the size and type of the bus fleet in Gozo.

Mr Mugliett said the government wanted to ensure reasonable bus fares compared to those of other countries. It was true that some fares had been heftily increased; they had not increased for a number of years. Direct services, used mostly by tourists, were more expensive because the government did not wish to subsidise tourists who were used to higher fares.

Turning to liberalisation, he said the debate on liberalisation of bus services was picking up in European fora, with some governments making this issue a priority.

The Maltese government was not hiding matters from the Public Transport Association, whose officials were accompanying the government delegations to Brussels, and they knew that liberalisation would come one day. What the government wanted was to ensure that when that day came, the current operators would be able to compete.

Public transport had to be looked at with a fresh mind so that problems could be ironed out.

Issues identified by experts included the fact that the system was concentrated on Valletta and there was a need to introduce regional bus termini. It was about time that these termini started to be seriously planned.

There was a capacity problem at peak times and over-provision at certain times, and the fare structure was complicated.

The experts also called for more efficient use of the buses.

The opposition's motion was defeated after a division. Opposition speakers are being reported separately.