Malta’s transport crises should not be an electoral spectacle

Momentum today criticised both the PL and the PN for continuing to treat Malta’s traffic and transport crisis as an electoral spectacle rather than a national emergency requiring serious, long-term planning.

The party noted that the PN’s recent proposal to build a metro within five years is completely detached from Malta’s administrative, financial, and infrastructural realities. “After decades in which both major parties failed to seriously tackle transport reform, suddenly promising a metro in five years is not credible governance, it is fantasy politics. Where are the geological studies? The archaeological ones?” Momentum stated.

Momentum also criticised the PL government’s latest announcement that the Transport Ministry will start undertaking geological core testing only two weeks before the election campaign. “This is another example of knee-jerk politics designed for headlines rather than solutions. If the government truly believed in long-term transport planning, these studies would have been undertaken years ago as part of a coherent national strategy, not rushed out at the last minute before voters go to the polls.”

The party argued that both the PL and the PN have spent years deepening Malta’s dependence on private cars through uncontrolled development, weak spatial planning, and road-building policies that simply generate more traffic.

Momentum contrasted this with its own realistic and structured proposals for transport reform, recently outlined during a press conference on transport presented by Ing. Marco Cremona, which emphasised practical measures, including a shared cab proposal aimed at reducing the number of private vehicles on Malta’s roads.

Momentum’s transport proposals include:

• the introduction of a shared cab system to encourage ride-sharing and drastically reduce congestion
• a major investment in reliable and frequent public transport
• decent bus stops and shelter
• removal of accessive bus stops
• an expanded bus lane network
• easier access to information, including whether a bus is full or not
• safer infrastructure for walking and cycling
• better integration between land-use planning and transport policy

“Malta does not need grandiose promises announced every election cycle. It needs competent planning, realistic targets, and the political courage to reduce car dependency in a serious and consistent manner,” Momentum said.

Mark Camilleri Gambin, Momentum candidate on 3 and 11 districts, concluded that Malta’s transport crisis will not be solved by “five-year miracle projects” or last-minute studies announced for political effect, but through steady, evidence-based reforms implemented with transparency and national consensus.

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