Since transport by bus became free of charge for Tallinja card holders on 1 October 2022, the government has spent a total of €31,616,239.40 to make up for the expense. This averages out to a mean monthly expenditure of €2.1 million, Transport Minister Chris Bonett told Parliament.

If one does not take into account the first five months of free public transport – Between October 2022 and March 2023 – the government’s monthly expenditure on public transport exceeded the average amount of €2.1 million in all months excluding last April; April 2023 was just under around €100 from reaching the €2 million mark.

In the last six months of 2023, the average monthly expenditure was €2.35 million. The costliest month was October 2023 with a grand total of just under €2.6 million.

Additionally, Bonett also said that since the public transport service is operated by a private company, and not the government, the government made no profit from persons who used public transport without a Tallinja card.

He said stated that as of the end of 2023, a total of 541,940 Tallinja cards have been issued out, since their entry in 2016. The majority of Tallinja card holders are adults (321,969), while just under 113,000 card holders are either elderly or disabled persons, students form nearly 92,000 of this total, and just over 4,000 children are also included in this statistic.

This information was provided by Minister Bonett after being questioned by PN MPs Charles Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina on the respective details relating to total and monthly expenditure, as well as the total number of “active” Tallinja cards given out.