Public Transport Authority rebuts claims by bus drivers' association

The Public Transport Authority yesterday issued a statement to "clarify several points" after the bus owners' association (the Public Transport Association) claimed that the authority had thrown out all their proposals.

The statement said that despite the claims made by the bus owners' association, the authority has not been presented with any proposal to increase fares. What has been proposed is that the government immediately approve a subsidy on an additional 30 new buses. The government has approved a subsidy on 147 new buses.

The reason why the government is not accepting the latter proposal is that the 147 approved buses are costing the taxpayer Lm32,000 each, amounting to Lm4.7 million; a further 30 will cost the taxpayer a further Lm1 million.

However, the government has not "thrown out" the proposal; rather it has said that once all the 147 new buses are here (they are arriving in batches) it will review whether more buses are needed.

Another request being made by the association, the statement continued, is that six buses not on the original list be included among the 147 new buses. Acceding to this request will cause the authority legal difficulties, since the agreement for the new buses was based on the registration number of the ones to be replaced.

The president of the association is alleging that the tickets issued by the ticketing machines provided for the buses, which cost the authority Lm1.1 million, can be misused by the public.

But the authority cannot understand why the association is now raising these problems, when it has been involved in the whole process.

This process has been developing over two years, so it is strange that the it is only in the last few weeks that the president of the association is raising these problems, the statement remarked.

The situation up to now has been that the association prints, distributes and has full control of the bus tickets.

One of the big problems facing the authority is the Lm2.5 million subsidy being requested, for this year, by the association. The association received Lm750,000 in subsidies last year and Lm513,580 the previous year.

These subsidies are given on the basis of an agreement which ensures a guaranteed income, i.e, government underpins their (bus owners') income when it does not reach the "guaranteed" level.

This when the authority has "little control" on the income or outgoings per annum of the association, the statement said.

Besides, when Mr Spiteri, president of the association, talked to the media about the letter sent to his association by the authority last Wednesday, he failed to mention the opening of the letter, where there was a clear invitation to the association to join the authority in a serious exercise to ensure that the Maltese public gets the transport service it deserves, ensuring an end to all the problems they encounter daily when using our public transport service, for example routes which are not being covered and on which the association fails to agree to service, the statement concluded.

Along with the statement, the authority also released the letter referred to, which dealt with the various demands made by the association and where it is made clear that it was inviting the association to engage in a serious discussion to improve the transport service to the benefit not only of the public, but also of visitors to our shores and, last but not least, the bus owners themselves.

Another interesting item in the letter deals with a request by the association for the authority to intervene on their behalf in cases of alleged unfair summons.

The letter states that like all other infringements of the law, these have to be decided in the law courts or tribunals and therefore no summons can be withdrawn. There are other remedies, the authority told the bus drivers, "if you feel that your association is being unjustly treated" by the police.