The cost to run the public transport service will reach nearly €70 million per year, sources close to Transport Malta told this newspaper. Sources said that experts in the field have suggested that in order to satisfy the requirements of the Maltese government, mainly tied to the bus routes, it will cost no less than

€70 million annually, however a third of the mount, €20 million, is expected to be covered through the sale of bus tickets. The question which has arisen though, is who will foot the €50 million per annum? The 70-million-euro annual sum stands nowhere close to the amount in subsidies Arriva had been given by a PN led government, that of six million euros.

To add insult to injury, when the previous government reviewed the bus routes, subsidies reached almost nine million. Initially, the original subsidy agreed to when Arriva won the 10- year contract had to be in the region of €6 million per year for the duration of the contract. But subsidies continued to in- crease drastically to almost nine million euros in 2012, the first full- year of operations, as the company made an estimated €21.5 million from the sale of bus fares. Sources explained to this newspaper that no bidder was ready to purchase Arriva Malta’s shareholding, which had been bought by the Maltese government for a symbolic one euro, unless the bus fares are in- creased. This means that taxpayers may not only have the burden of footing the rest of the amount, that of around €50 million annually, but is likely to face higher tariffs, at least those who make use of the service.

Three consortiums submitted their bids on Monday – the deadline for bidders to place their bids – one of which is a Spanish-owned company and the other two are local. The foreign company is Autbuses de Leon and forms part of ALSA (Automóviles Luarca, SA.) - a Spanish subsidiary of UK trans- port company National Express Group, which operates bus and coach services in Spain and other countries across Europe. ALSA also had operations in China and Chile, but these were retained by the previous owners of the company and are not owned by National Express.

One of the local consortiums that has placed its bid is Island Buses Malta, comprising at least seven companies or individuals such as Zarb Coaches, Paramount, Cancu Supreme, Ta’ Peppin, Garden of Eden, Mamo, owners of Fiat, and a company owned by a certain Mario Cilia. The majority of these above- mentioned companies fall under the umbrella of Unscheduled Bus Services (UBS). The other company is Gozo First Travel, which has showed interest in running the service in Gozo exclusively. Back in March, the British firm in the race for Malta’s public transport service had expressed concern over the viability of the deal as laid out in the call for expression of interest is- sued by the government. The National Express had warned the Transport Minister in a letter that it would be, “difficult, if not impossi-ble” for any private organisation to successfully achieve the government’s aspirations at the price it was proposing.

The letter had been sent by the managing director of National Ex- press, Andrew Cleaves (who no longer represents the company), a few days before McGill’s, Scot- land’s fourth-largest bus operator, had said it had withdrawn its interest in running a bus service in Malta due to, “excessive State interference” concerns.