Talks deadlocked as bus strike enters third day

Talks between the government and the Public Transport Association remained at a deadlock yesterday with Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett insisting that unless the PTA reconsidered its "exorbitant claims", there was no room for discussion.

As the public transport strike enters its third day today, both sides are hoping that goodwill will prevail and the situation will be resolved soon.

Mr Mugliett said that no contact had been made with the PTA yesterday and none was planned over the weekend.

"The association's claims are exorbitant and unless we receive alternative proposals that they are willing to reconsider, then there is no room for discussions. We are now waiting for them to come forward," he said when contacted yesterday.

In the meantime, most public transport routes stop running at 8 p.m. on weekdays, with the exception of routes 11, 19, 22, 45, 48, 49, 62 and 70 which will run as usual.

Route 75 (the direct service linking towns and villages to St Luke's Hospital) has also been suspended, with only the route from Valletta to the hospital being run.

The PTA has also threatened to start dismissing 40 employees gradually from Tuesday.

Mr Mugliett was not convinced the threat would be followed through, saying it would be a bit far-fetched for the association to start dismissing those people who were in charge of ensuring that the service ran smoothly.

"If they do not have these people they know there will be problems. And most of them are related in some way or another so I cannot see this happening," he added.

Mr Mugliett is optimistic there will be developments this week. However he reiterated that there was no way the Lm1.1 million subsidy offered by the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) would be topped by Lm600,000 as the bus owners are demanding.

"We have already upped our figure to Lm1.1 million from under Lm1 million, and we have also taken it upon ourselves to subsidise the insurance premium increase, which is another Lm120,000," he said.

"If there is no breakthrough we will consider taking measures to offer some transport services ourselves," he added.

Meanwhile, PTA president Victor Spiteri was also playing the waiting game and said that the association was expecting the government to come forward to resolve the situation around a table.

"We are not planning to intensify our action over the coming days. Though we maintain that the present conditions are unacceptable, we believe that with goodwill we can get there," he said.

On the streets of Valletta, people failed to sympathise with the bus owners. A vox pop carried out by The Sunday Times revealed that commuters have had enough of increased fares and poor service.

"The bus owners have been given more than enough money and the government should stand firm and not give in to their demands," said Rose Dimech from Birkirkara.

Riann Gladwish, a student from St Venera, complained that she was spending a considerable chunk of her stipend on bus fares and bus owners certainly did not deserve more money.

Another commuter, Croce Grima from Marsa, said the association was overstepping the mark by demanding more money.

"They have more than enough subsidies and they should give a better service before demanding more money," he said.

One man from Marsascala said that bus owners did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted and shouldn't be paid a penny more.

A woman from St Paul's Bay pointed out that the bus fares had already increased but the service had remained the same. It was cheeky of the bus owners to strike and demand more money.