Arriva Malta

[KMN-221-U]

RE: Arriva Malta

Quote:Public Transport making more losses than Arriva – PN
4 days ago - Wednesday, 09 April 2014, 15:25




Toni Bezzina, Nationalist Party spokesman on transport, said the extraordinary losses that the government’s Malta Public Transport had recorded in the first three months that public transport was run by the government is seriously disquieting for taxpayers.

The loss is of €7 million over three months only, meaning that in just three months, the government has made taxpayers pay as much as the government used to pay in subsidy to Arriva for a whole year.

This situation is unacceptable, Mr Bezzina said. The government had boasted it was running public transport better than Arriva, whose service it had described as a disaster. The truth now is that the government has run a disastrous public transport in the last three months, forcing taxpayers to fork out €7 million in three months.

The government had stopped operating a night service at the weekend, several routes had the last 11pm service removed, and some routes are being operated with buses which cannot be used by elderly or disabled persons, or women with children.

Mr Bezzina said that apart from all this, the interest Minister Joe Mizzi had said there was in the public transport contract has not materialised. Only three companies had shown an interest and it was for the grace of God that two Maltese companies had shown an interest because the government would have had no choice but to accept conditions imposed by one company.

The lack of interest shows that the government is scaring away foreign investment. Several private foreign companies had withdrawn their interest and commented publicly that the government had scared them off because of its secrecy and interference.