The lament made recently through the media by eye surgeon Franco Mercieca with regard to his ‘priority boarding’ pass, which the channel crossing company revoked earlier this year, was somewhat baseless when considering that he is not the only professional who resides in Gozo and crosses over to Malta on a daily basis for work purposes.

Without demeaning the value that the priority boarding pass provided to Dr Mercieca with regard to the invaluable health service he provides to patients, his lament deserves to be analysed in the context of the conditions that currently prevail with the Gozo Channel and the service that this company offers.

Without doubt, Dr Mercieca’s complaint highlighted one major fact that in all probability irks all commuters who use Gozo Channel on a daily basis. This is the relatively low frequency of the service provided by the ferry company in terms of crossings.

With an average ferry crossing departing every 45 minutes during the day, the service cannot be called anything but inefficient especially when noting the long queues which are forming on a daily basis. From early in the evening, the service resorts to a frequency lapse of one hour and 15 minutes forcing commuters to wait without any shelter from the elements at Ċirkewwa. While acknowledging that works have restarted on the passenger terminal on the Malta side, it has to be noted that this building has been in construction for around 14 years.

Invariably the gap between ferry crossings leads to a traffic tailbacks at both the Mġarr and Ċirkewwa harbours which could easily be eliminated should the ferries operate on a continuous basis and sail immediately once the cargo deck has reached full capacity.

The company could argue that the current time-table is based on a tried and tested formula and has been in its current format for a number of years. The reality is that the time-table is somewhat out of sync with modern times and exigencies and the company should consider providing a shuttle service more often without the need to wait for queues to form at either harbour.

Perhaps the argument will be made that more frequent trips or a shuttle service would incur an additional expense that cannot be justified. The reality is that the company is funded by government to make up for the shortfall in finances incurred despite the ever increasing number of passengers and vehicles carried across the Malta-Gozo channel. In fact, the claims made throughout the past years that the company operates at a loss require clarifications by the authorities responsible for Gozo Channel to understand how it is possible that a company which is constantly increasing business manages to operate at a loss.

While investigating the cause of the financial losses being incurred the company should also investigate the attitude of certain employees that leaves much to be desired with regard to passengers who ultimately contribute significantly in financial terms towards the operations.