A steep increase in the number of cars on the road and an increase in emissions from traffic showed how the strategy to encourage more people to use the buses has failed, and a new broad, long-term strategy was needed, the Nationalist Party said.

Shadow Minister Toni Bezzina observed in a statement that between 2013 and 2016 the number of cars increased by 45,000, or 1,250 per month. This showed how efforts to get more people to use the buses had failed, despite a tripling of the government's subsidy to the bus company.

The increase that there had been in the number of bus passengers appeared to result mostly from migrants who had no option other than the buses in their first months here.  

Pollution caused by traffic between 2013 and 2016 increased from 520 to 582 kiloton equivalent of CO2, an increase of 12 per cent in just three years.   

Mr Bezzina also noted that traffic fatalities had risen from 15 in 2010 to 23 in 2016. 

Such worrying statistics, he said, pointed to the need for a new long-term transport strategy which enjoyed cross-party support.