Watch: Clyde Caruana Warns Mass Transport Will Fail Without Car-Free Culture
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana played down talk of a mass transport system, warning it will cost billions of euro and will only be viable if people stop using their cars.
Political debate over a mass transport system has resurfaced in recent days, with Prime Minister Robert Abela proposing a metro and Opposition Leader Alex Borg pushing for a tram.
However, in an interview on @karlspodcast, Caruana compared this to “silly season” talk that emerges every five years when an election is approaching.
“Mass transport will require significant investment of billions of euro,” he warned. “For such an investment to make sense, people will have to leave their cars at home. You can’t invest to much money if only 50,000 – 60,000 people will use it.”
“You need masses of people to use it, otherwise the tickets will be out of this world or the government will have to subsidise it at an extraordinary and unviable cost.”
“If someone wants to convince me, they will have to explain to me how they will get people to stop using their cars.”
Caruana also warned that the construction of a metro or tram will be seriously inconvenient to residents and businesses.
“How can we have a tram when cars can barely pass through several village streets? Will the tram pass over people’s homes?” he asked.
“Either we won’t manage to connect all the localities, or it will end up a tragedy for our architecture, with people revolting as entire roads are dug up and parking spaces wiped out. There’s already uproar when a single road is repaired, let alone with a project of this scale.”
He also questioned how mass transport users will continue their commutes once they reach their final destination.
“Are we used to walking or will there be a car waiting for you outside the station to take you somewhere else?”
“You can have the most beautiful dream in the world but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself whether it is financially feasible. It’s like when you want to buy a nice car – it sounds great but can you afford the insurance and maintenance fees, and will you buy it just to say you own it but then not use it?”
“I’m seeing this with a sense of responsibility, also because I don’t want my successors to be burdened with a heavy cross they cannot carry.”
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