Gozo is synonymous with mobility and accessibility. At present its only means of accessibility is through sea transport with the regular ferry and the fast ferry services working endlessly to transport people and cars between the two islands. The fast ferry service started operating in June of this year, and in the third quarter of this year, according to statistics published by the National Statistics Office it carried a total of 203,574 passengers, doing a total of 4,206 trips.
In 2019 the vehicles that crossed between the two islands amounted to 1,782,909, with that amount decreasing slightly to 1,552,138 in 2020. In 2021, up till the third quarter of this year the amount of vehicles that had crossed the channel amounted to 1,297,823. One has to note that during 2020 and 2021 there were periods when because of the pandemic only essential travel was allowed between the two islands.
The total amount of passengers that travelled between the two islands amounted to 5,917,780 in 2019 and 3,773,981 in 2020. Up till quarter three of this year, 3,266,190 passengers had crossed between the two islands. But why these figures? These go on to show that at the core of Gozitan economy and society, mobility and transport play a crucial part.
The Gozo Business Chamber is proud to share in the Foundation for Transport’s vision of encouraging sustainable mobility, with a specific emphasis on the island of Gozo. The Chamber is encouraging Government to adopt the vision of Gozo becoming carbon neutral prior to Malta, where the national target is being set for 2050. Sustainable mobility plays a central part in this vision. The Foundation for Transport and the Chamber held various meetings to discuss how this transition can be facilitated and what can be the stumbling blocks towards its achievement. The ground is being set both at an international and national level.
Mobility and transport play a crucial part
The European Union has put at the core of its mission the green and digital transitions, which are the main drivers of the Green Deal. This year the Government of Malta has launched a number of consultation documents related to sustainable mobility, principally: Malta’s Low Carbon Development Strategy; the Green Paper towards cleaner vehicles on our roads; the publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure regulations; and the Draft National Policy for Electric Vehicle Public Charging Infrastructure. In all its responses the Chamber highlighted that Gozo can play a very important role in aiding the green transition. However, Gozo’s requirements need to be taken into account.
This means for example that the public accessible charging infrastructure must not take into account only the resident population density, but must also cater for those periods where the population density is higher. This applies to Gozo where domestic tourism plays a very important part, and where a significant number of people resident on the main island of Malta now have their second home on the sister island. Gozo is also a preferred destination for day trips with foreign tourists. This means that many of them travel by rented cars to Gozo to visit it for day. This implies that any publicly accessible charging infrastructure must also take into account these traffic flows.
Another important consideration that needs to be made is that we must ensure in Gozo a number of technicians who are specialized in the repair and servicing of electric and hybrid cars and other vehicles. Both the Foundation for Transport and the Gozo Business Chamber have discussed the importance of building this human resource capacity. The uptake of electric vehicles depends also on the confidence people have that when travelling to Gozo with their electric or hybrid car, they will be assisted if needed.
The Chamber has put forward a number of proposals to accelerate the transition towards green mobility in Gozo. These include increased incentives for Gozitan residents to shift to electric vehicles. Another proposal relates to reduced ferry tickets for Maltese residents crossing over to Gozo with electric vehicles.
However, the momentum of the green transition will also depend on the uptake and use of public transport. In this regard Gozo has significant potential also given the fact that public transport will be free as from next year. Nonetheless Gozo’s public transport fleet needs to change to smaller electric buses which however would be more frequent between its various localities. Larger buses, which can also be electric or hybrid would only be maintained between the main routes such as Mġarr and Victoria.
However, one also needs to look beyond that. As regards sea transport we need to look forward to hybrid sea vessels. However, this must be accompanied with a clear strategy for the electrification of Mġarr harbour.
The anniversary that the Foundation for Transport is celebrating is an important milestone. Its important work towards ensuring sustainable mobility on all fronts needs to be acknowledged. The Gozo Business Chamber looks forward to continue cooperating with the Foundation for Transport to reach its goals not only at a national but also at a regional level.
Daniel Borg is Gozo Business Chamber CEO