I am at a complete loss in trying to understand the fixation that both political parties have with the idea of a tunnel link between Malta and Gozo.

Since both parties share this inexplicable obsession, it will be impossible even to vote against it.

 (Happily, as a mere immigrant, I am unable to vote for any party that includes it in its manifesto. Sadly, I can't vote against it, either.)

Dr Busuttil’s latest idea is to have a train link. Unless it carries cars, it will be both pointless and useless; the Maltese who cross the channel need their cars with them at the other end. But if there could be tracks, why not just allow people to drive where the tracks would be – and save the expense of a train, and of carriages? (I won't even go into the problem of what might happen if a "train" has a problem half-way through the tunnel.)

Malta's experience with tunnels, to date, has been in building them overground, and they are not a great success – except for the wardens who decide that (in their opinion) you have turned off your lights too early when emerging into bright sunlight. If you drive from Malta to France you use more than a hundred overground tunnels. (There are no wardens skulking at the exits.) Malta's are by far the worst – and the worst-lighted – of the lot.

The tunnel plot for Gozo was announced by this government as being "feasible" before it was discovered that something like 50 metres of rock had not been taken into account because it was not on the geological map that they, and all the "experts", were looking at.

Nobody has asked Gozitans whether they want a tunnel. It would certainly ruin the "sister island" in so many ways. Gozo would become no more than a driveable suburb of "the mainland", slightly further away than Mellieha. As an accessible weekend retreat the chances are that it would become another Paceville, so Malta would simply shift its problems there. Nobody would stay in Gozo, because they could simply drive back every night. So there, at a stroke, go the hotels and the accompanying economy and employment.

Some Gozitans have heard that "house prices would soar" – but why would they, when people could stay more cheaply on the south island, and just drive across for an afternoon on Ramla beach, or for a meal at a decent restaurant? More likely, the Maltese who became "residents" to get a subsidised ferry fare would be looking to sell their properties.

Tourists enjoy the ferry as part of their holiday experience, as they might if their destination was a Greek island. The locals have learnt to live with it. The problem is not the ferry: it is Cirkewwa, which is the least accessible point on Malta, with the worst approaches.

So... it is the Maltese who want a tunnel. And not even all of them – only the few who are terrified of crossing when the sea is less than ice-rink flat. The same threat of wind, incidentally, had very quickly ruled out the idea of a bridge.

For the rest, the ones who all head for the same noon ferry on Fridays, and for the 6.30 to go home from Mgarr on Sundays and Mondays, and who are prepared to sit in their cars for hours in the sunshine, all that's needed is more ferries.

More ferries... and a choice of destination – say Sliema and Valletta – would reduce waiting time, would reduce traffic congestion (and pollution), and would, for everybody who lives in the deep south, remove the option of a dreadful journey.

If we can't have more ferries (although the current fleet is fast approaching its best-before date) and if we can't have different destinations, and if Malta is determined to build a tunnel... the obvious answer is to build it below ground, rather than below sea – and to build it as a fast and accessible route between Cirkewwa and the middle of Malta.

That would be easier and cheaper, and safer (in that it was not under water). Nobody who has experienced Malta's record with building and maintaining roads and any kind of infrastructure is going to trust a Maltese underwater passage.

It is so disappointing to find both parties supporting this ludicrous notion. They know it could not possibly be built within the lifetime of any government – come to that, it could not possibly be built within the life of any potential voter.

So, please, let's drop this plot. There are far more pressing problems for Malta to solve than how a few scaredy-cat Maltese get to Gozo for the weekend.

Revel Barker

Ghajnsielem