The Sliema ferries landing terminal is finally in operation, four years after works started to provide safer embarkation facilities to people crossing between Sliema and Valletta.

The upgrading of the terminal was first announced in 2018 and is part of a €5 million project, including the construction of a new ferry landing site in Cospicua.

The project included the construction of complex quay structures going down almost three storeys underwater, supported on concrete piles drilled even deeper in the seabed.

Works also included connection of infrastructural services, completion of the promenade, the installation of the louvres and minor finishing works for the superstructure.

A notice directing passengers to the new terminal.

Works on the new quay on the Strand started back in April 2019, with plans for the project to be completed by 2020. During the works, the ferry left from a nearby makeshift tent that served as a terminal. The delay in the project was attributed to rough seas and a contractor not meeting established deadlines.

In 2022, Infrastructure Malta said the works would be completed and running by the third quarter of 2023, saying at the time that “final works” were taking place. In November, they said works were expected to be completed by the end of the year and should be running by the first quarter of next year.

The ferries since 1880s

Ferries have been operating from the area since the late 1880s. In fact, the area has become known as The Ferries. In a series of research-based articles titled Sliema Grew With The Ferries, Michael Cassar mapped out the story of  Sliema and the ferries in great detail.

Cassar wrote about how in January 29, 1881, Julius (Giulio) Goldseller set up The Sliema Valletta Ferry Service Company. Before that barklori (private boaters) charged two pence for the crossing. The company commissioned two steam ferries from a shipbuilder at Marsa.

"Preparations for the service included the building of landing stages and police stations at Sliema at the corner of Strada Marina with Tower Road, and at Marsamxett. The original landing places were basic: a moveable, wide, wooden plank which led to a floating pontoon," Cassar wrote. The service was inaugurated on Sunday, June 11, 1882.

The Sliema terminal in 1949

Ferries started from the landing places at 20-minute intervals between 6am and 8pm from April 1 to October 31 and between 7am to sunset from November 1 to March  31.

The ferries carried 45 passengers and three crew members: master, engineer, and seaman. The single journey penny fare was increased by half a penny in bad weather, and a blue flag being raised at Marsamxett Police Station to indicate rough seas.

Cassar went on to explain that towards the end of November 1896, rumours started circulating that the monopoly enjoyed by the Marsamuscetto Steam Ferry Service would be broken.

Three gentlemen, Gustav Gollcher, Eduardo Montebello Pulis and Raffaele Polidano, proposed to start another ferry service with superior vessels. The penny fare was to include free access from Marsamuscetto Steps to street level by hydraulic lift.

The ferry at Marsamxett

The National Ferry Boat Company began operations with three ferries on Sunday, August 1, 1897. A single fare was one penny, return fare cost one and a half pence. A year’s subscription cost one pound, five shillings.

At Sliema, the NSFBC was allocated the landing place next to the Marine Police Station, opposite Tower Road. The MSFS landing place faced Annunciation Street. At Marsamxett, the latter company retained the original landing place near the Marine Police Station; the landing place of the NSFBC was a stone’s throw away in the direction of the harbour mouth and Valletta Sewage Pumping Station (Il-Fossa).

"All four landing stages were of elegant, standard design; the covered piers provided shelter from all weathers and arrivals and departures were separated by a central railing. Ferries moored to a floating pontoon anchored to the fixed pier; the pontoon permitted berthing at all states of tide and swell. Each landing stage bore the company name on the pediment: Marsamxett Steam Ferry Service 1882, and National Steam Ferry Boat Company 1897," Cassar wrote.