The Problem
No government has been able to implement large-scale transport infrastructure in Malta. The reasons are well known: our key urban areas are defined by narrow corridors, historic sites, and dense populations. Any major construction project risks paralysing movement for years. Congestion is already at breaking point, and adding more disruption could quite literally trap people in their homes.
Traditional solutions don’t fit Malta.
- Underground rail is practically impossible. Excavation would likely uncover archaeological sites and artefacts, turning a 10-year project into a 50-year one. It would further destroy our heritage.
- Trams, while cheaper and faster to build, demand road space Malta simply doesn’t have. A single breakdown can stall an entire line until it reaches a service area or depot, further consuming valuable land.
- Suspension Rail everywhere will blight the island and be a white elephant in later years.
Malta needs a different approach. One that works within its physical and cultural limits. Other cities have done this before: over a century ago, Wuppertal in Germany built its suspension railway to overcome space constraints due to mountains and hills. Malta must find its own equally inventive but realistic solution.
Immediate Actions
1. Go All-In on Motorbikes
- Encourage a large-scale shift to motorbikes and scooters as primary urban transport.
- Remove taxes on sub-300cc bikes or EV bikes
- Create dedicated motorbike lanes in key corridors.
- Offer incentives such as rebates on fuel or repairs, or up to £1,000 off the purchase of bikes.
- Better still make a deal with China to get Gogoro https://www.gogoro.com/ in Malta
- Grant road priority to motorbikes during congestion.
- Support motorbike taxi services with dedicated apps and regulated pick-up points. A model already familiar to many immigrant drivers and riders.
- Encourage Transport Malta officers and police to use motorbikes regularly to promote the shift.
2. Expand and Liberalise Ferry Services
- The Sliema to Valletta ferry proves how efficient water transport can be. Its also a nice and relaxing trip and cheap as chips. Its not well advertised or connected and could be improved a lot.
- Build multiple pontoons around the island and integrate them with existing bus routes.
- Allow licensed private boat owners to operate point-to-point passenger services between these hubs.
- This creates a flexible "water bus" network with minimal infrastructure cost and will aim to reduce congestion later on to Middle ring infrastructure.
3. Redeploy Minibuses
- Utilise the existing school minibus fleet during off-peak hours to provide on-demand micro-transit across the island.
- These smaller vehicles can reach areas where full-sized buses and trams cannot operate.
4. Introduce Smart Road Pricing
- Install automatic licence plate recognition (LPR) tolls on all major arterial roads.
- Carpoolers and vehicles carrying passengers travel toll-free.
- Tolls drop to zero during low-traffic periods and increase during peak or unusually high traffic periods to make it so that only those that need to use the roads leave their homes.
- Revenue from this system directly funds the Next Steps of the transport transition.
5. Reshape Work Patterns
- Hold a national mobility summit with major employers.
- Enforce or incentivise hybrid work, remote options, or staggered start times to spread out peak-hour traffic. This may come with tax reductions.
- "Rush hour" must become "medium traffic morning/evening".
6. Tackle Nightlife transport issue
- Double down on Drink Driving
- Make getting home cheap and accessible without relying solely on Car Taxis. It has to be affordable and it has to be ever present.
- Any scams, predatory behavior or overcharging or anything that affects public perception have to be dealt with immediately. No waiting for court, the police charge the provider, you write your witness statement , done.
Future Vision
1. Unified Transport Platform
- Develop a single app or payment gateway connecting all public and private transport options, such as ferries, buses, minibuses, trams (future), and motorbike taxis.
- The government acts as a neutral broker, managing payments and data while enabling private operators to compete and innovate.
2. Ferry Network Expansion
Full coverage of:
- St. Julian’s – Sliema – Valletta – Three Cities – Marsaskala – Marsaxlokk
- Bugibba – St. Paul’s Bay – Mellieha – Cirkewwa (North)
3. Key Interchange Hubs
Establish major transport interchanges in Sliema, Mosta, and Valletta, where multiple modes converge through ferries, trams (future), buses, minibuses, and micro-mobility.
4. Multi-Ring Mobility System
Create a three-ring transport model:
- Outer Ring: Ferries connecting coastal towns.
- Middle Ring: Buses and future off-road light rail or suspension lines.
- Inner Ring: Buses, minibuses, and motorbikes handling local mobility.
Wide transport corridors should be identified now for future development of light rail or suspended tram systems. Each hub would include private and public operators: taxis, motorbikes, minibuses, and buses. If a bus is not present, then 100s of motorbikes and minivans to accept hand off.
Conclusion
Malta cannot copy other countries’ transport systems. It must build one that works for its unique geography, heritage, and density. By combining smart incentives, lighter modes of mobility, and strategic planning, Malta can relieve congestion quickly, while laying the groundwork for a flexible, modern, and integrated network in the years ahead.
Malta’s Transport Crisis: A pragmatic way forward
byu/AdolphusPerfidus inmalta
Posted by AdolphusPerfidus
15 Comments
I would also consider a kei car program to shrink fleet size. This could take the form of incentives on small car purrchase to promoting local design challenges
What about cycle lanes? More people would cycle if it wasn’t so dangerous on the roads
Well done for not criticising only but trying to offer solutions
There is more…..
Make on street parking payable
High fuel prices
Remove scrap cars from the roads with a more stringent VRT (the present one is a joke)
End the 30 years vintage scheme
Limit Bolt taxi (by half)
Tax heavily SUVs and huge cars and incentivize small car use
Higher tax on cars that are not electric
More work from home (Like covid times)
The only way is underground. It will be expensive and will take time to get an underground system covering the whole island. Still, one needs to start. There will be issues for sure but one will eventually tackle them as these crop up. Secondly, one should limit the flow of heavy vehicles during rush hours. Trailers, mixers, trucks shouldn’t be allowed on the roads from 6:30am till 9am and from 4pm till 6pm. Either they plan their trips earlier or later…construction industry/importers can’t just have the cake and eat it. They have to pay their price. Third thing and the most important one, we should simply limit the number of people living here. Living here has become unbearable not just for the traffic but for everything else as well. Don’t tell me go somewhere else…I don’t want.
I think the first step they need to do is to regulate the number of cars. Singapore had the same problem many years ago until they found a way to regulate the number of cars and force almost everyone to use public transport. in the beginning it was hard, people complained a lot, buses were crowded but once it has stabilized after a couple of years, the number of buses went up, the number of cars significantly went down, the streets naturally got cleared up from parked vehicles, which made literally the side walks better and since there are now more buses than cars, there are more civilized drivers on the street. They implemented huge penalties on cars who have accidents. First of all they lose their license which was so expensive, and secondly they pay a hefty fine with imprisonment depending on the gravuty. So drivers became more cautious and disciplined.
It is possible for Malta to become like Singapore. But it has to be a concerted effort by both the governement and the people. otherwise it will just fall into this loop where others will comply, and the more powerful ones dont bother.
>Underground rail is practically impossible. Excavation would likely uncover archaeological sites and artefacts, turning a 10-year project into a 50-year one. It would further destroy our heritage.
I would disagree with this. It’s not likely at all. Metro stations would be in a limited number of locations – probably central/urban, and therefore probably replacing an existing structure (the foundations of which will have already uncovered any archeological sites (if any). The rest of the infrastructure is far deeper underground than any architectural site is likely to be, leaving them undisturbed.
It’s not like 90% of the island is prehistoric dwellings just 3-4 metres underground. The *occasional* new development uncovers something of interest, but this is rare and bad luck.
>Go All-In on Motorbikes
* Not a viable option for the elderly, people with young children, people going for family shopping, or any family trips in general.
* Dedicated motorbike lanes – these already exist (though I think they were intended as bicycle lanes). Scooters seem still to prefer winding between cars than use them for some reason…
* What is “road priority during congestion”?
>Expand and Liberalise Ferry Services
* Sliema to Valetta has the advantage of being a short cut instead of a long round-about and congested route. Not all routes would be like this.
* Sliema to Valetta is A-to-B. For the ferry to be an effective choice of public transportation it needs to go from A-to-B-to-C-to-D-to-E-to-F. With docking being the slowest part of a journey, that’s going to take hours. Fine for tourists, useless for commuters.
* Obviously, not everyone lives close to the sea. Considering there would be relatively few ferry ports, walking will not be an option for most people. Expecting people to drive to a port (usually in a dense urban area since the intention is to serve as public transportation for exactly those areas) results in exactly the same traffic as before, just shifted.
>Introduce Smart Road Pricing
* This just dumps the costs onto the poorest people – usually the ones who don’t have the option to work from home because they work in shops, hospitality, labourers, etc.
* These people don’t have option to stay at home if somewhere along their route becomes congested.
* Other people would just have costs covered by their employer, making it an ineffective measure. Basically a tax on drivers used to pay for the system which applies the tax on driver.
>Reshape Work Patterns
* Naive to expect this could work or that employers would agree to such a plan or how to distribute work patterns.
* There is already an incentive for employers to allow people to work from home as there are huge potential savings just in the size of offices which they would need to maintain – and yet they are increasingly requiring people to come into the office and scale back wfh and hybrid options.
* While some people enjoyed working from home, others hated it – especially if their living situation wasn’t suitable for working. Also, staggered hours could be problematic for people with children (children spending less time both parents if their work patterns differed, though to be fair this could be beneficial with regards to drop-off/pick-up from school and childcare)
>Tackle Nightlife transport issue
* Traffic isn’t really a problem at night.
* Two words: “vomit bus”.
* Extra-judicial justice. What could go wrong?
Monorail/suspension rail is a terrible idea.
They are extremely difficult to maintain and prohibitevly expensive.[monorail is a terrible idea](https://youtu.be/9f__nhlHC1g?si=p5n03JogDsM2uf8O)
I think you make a valid point about an underground system though.
A proper subway system is possible, through land acquisition and proper city level, big project planning in parallel like a lot of cities do when they undertake pedestrianization.
Our PAs corruption causes problems withy that.
Usually for a revitalization project cities zone out a neighborhood and buy it out in bulk, get the construction done at one go instead of ad hoc constant construction.
>Unified Transport Platform
* The public side of this already exists: Tallinja. People may say the app is shit, but it exists, and the contactless card already works on most (all?) public transportation. It’s not rocket science to expand this to private transport providers.
>Ferry Network Expansion
* Not sure why you would list them are two separate routes. The majority of commuters in the North are travelling to work in the centre or the East – for ferries to be effective they need to go all the way – not have a big gap between Bugibba and St. Julians.
>Key Interchange Hubs
* This kinda already exists. In Sliema definitely. In Valetta it’s not really practical to have the buses in a hub down next to the ferries (and obviously you can’t bring the ferries up to the buses). Other cities do need hubs though – many of the larger towns don’t even have a proper bus station…
>Multi-Ring Mobility System
* Eh… I mean, that’s kinda logical, isn’t it. Whichever transport is most suitable for the area. It’s actually confusing referring to it as a ring because it’s not ring-shaped. There’s a dense urban belt along the East coast (and to a lesser degree along the North coast), same with sea belt, and several main belts along the main corridors through the island,
I disagree that suspension rail should so be quickly be dismissed; design it well and it won’t blight the island. And why would it turn into a white elephant? Suspended above traffic, it can be automated and transport mass numbers with ease.
Encouraging use of two wheel options, although optimistic, is grossly unrealistic and unsuitable for families and anyone over a certain age.
>Conclusion
>Malta cannot copy other countries’ transport systems. It must build one that works for its unique geography, heritage, and density. By combining smart incentives, lighter modes of mobility, and strategic planning, Malta can relieve congestion quickly, while laying the groundwork for a flexible, modern, and integrated network in the years ahead.
I have to be frank, quirky novelty projects are not going have much of an impact, if any.
I don’t understand the stubborn refusal to push for the most obvious and least disruptive solution, which is a metro. While yes, it’s expensive, it is the only thing which is a suitable alternative to commuting in cars and is the most effective at reducing traffic.
Malta isn’t as different as you seem to think – it’s actually perfectly suited for something like a metro system as the population density is concentrated in long belts along which the routes would run. Arguments that it would hurt Malta’s cultural heritage are facile – nobody has suggested that the cultural heritage of London or Paris or Athens or any other “cultural” place was harmed by their metro system.
While you have some interesting ideas, they’re more suited for introduction only *after* traffic congestion has been lessened. The idea that introducing scooters or (e)bikes or mini-buses will cause people to abandon using their cars is for the birds – if they can afford cars then they can afford scooters, and yet they don’t. Why? Because it’s dangerous and there’s too much traffic – so they use cars – which is why the roads are so dangerous and full of traffic. It’s a classic Catch-22. Incentives won’t break that cycle. Punishment won’t change that either – it’ll just hurt the poorest people the most and hand the next election to the party which promises to lift the restrictions and you’re right back where you started.
Any solution needs to offer a better alternative for car drivers – and something which will neither incentivise them nor punish them to compel them to change. A metro system does that. When it decreases traffic, it becomes easier for other projects such as the ones you suggest. Less traffic makes it more viable to widen roads to bike lanes, pedestrianise town centres, have better and more reliable bus services etc. In fact, while those infrastructure projects are being developed and roads are temporarily closed because of works, there is an added incentive for people to rely on the metro system, thus further normalising its use and reducing the perceived necessity to have a car (or at least having multiple cars)
The easiest incentive for the government to implement right now is incentives for companies who switch to remote working. It’s proven to work and also it helps with parents who need to be there more for their children. I worked in US company that had an office here but going there was optional. All the employees there had a better work to life balance and also 1+ kids each.
1: this is the most terrifying solution ever. First of all motorbikes are ofter disregarded by car drivers, second because motorbike drivers are nowadays out of control. They think rules don’t apply to them and they think that cars have to stop to let them pass first. This is a good recipe to increase the death rate on the roads
2: as soon as the sea is a little rough, everything will be paralysed. Not a solution to the problem.
3: this can be more interesting if we start thinking differently about bus transport. Maltese roads are often too narrow for buses, so what is the point to have buses doing 10-20 stop within one town? Big buses should stop 1 or 2 times in towns, and only in the main roads of the island. Then a network of small buses can run in parallel only for that specific town. Example related to Rabat: all the buses reach the main bus stop, the one close to the Domus Romana. 1 stop only. You need to go to Rabat from another village? Bus service brings you there. Then, from there there are other 5 lines going back and forth from the bus stop to different corners of the village. If you live near S. Sebastian church, you take the small bus till Rabat bus station, and from there you go to other cities.
4 paying for a struggling, almost non existing road system is extremely stupid. Paying for what?
5 and 6:basically irrelevant to the problem.
Nah, just cut immigration and slash visas. Less people. Less traffic. This problem and so many others solved.