The Minister for Sustainable Mobility, Chris Bonett, told Parliament on Monday that "our biggest challenge moving forward" is not the time taken to travel from one location to another, but parking.

During question time in Monday's plenary, Minister Bonett was asked to outline how the government aims to reduce parking struggles around the country - namely through its national parking strategy.

The PN's Shadow Minister for Sustainable Mobility, Ivan Castillo, also asked Minister Bonett whether the national parking and travel demand strategy has been completed and if he could table it to Parliament in its next plenary session. Castillo observed that nowadays, according to a recently published study, the average cruising time for drivers to find a parking spot ranges between six and twelve minutes, and so he questioned what government will be doing to address these frequent "wastes of time" on the road.

In response, Bonett said that parking difficulties will be addressed through measures coming in the next two years, as part of the government's Malta in Motion plan.

Agreeing with Opposition MP Castillo, he said that "our biggest challenge moving forward, some say it's the time going from A to B, but it's parking."

The Minister for Sustainable Mobility said however that he cannot share what these measures will look for the time being, as this is currently being discussed between the government and Arup Group - the main consultants for the Malta in Motion plan being undertaken to resolve Malta's longstanding traffic and public transportation issues and cultures.

However, the Minister gave an idea of what is being envisioned here, without disclosing what exactly Arup's studies are currently considering.

Sharing what he can on this, he referenced the set-up of utilising circular buses to transport people going into residential areas and town centres. Minister Bonett mentioned that it would be ideal for locals to be able to find parking near their homes, while people entering localities they do not reside in can park outside these residential zones and catch circular buses to reach their final destination.

"We need a good bus service, especially in busy areas, so people do not need to park in town centres," Bonett said.

He commented that it is not feasible for parking meters to be installed for non-residents within any given locality around town centres to guarantee that locals are prioritised.

He noted that wherever the government added parking and circular buses in this regard, people seem to have reacted positively. As a result, "we hope for this to be the way forward," Bonett said.

Speaking about the Malta in Motion plan, this time while responding a PQ posed by PL backbencher Nigel Vella, Bonett said that "we cannot get it wrong," that "it is a complicated project," and that he will not pledge any "unrealistic targets."

He said that the next phase of the implementation of this long-term plan focuses on circular buses, installing a fast ferry in Marsaskala, and the awaited new bus concession scheduled to come in 2030.

More on the Malta in Motion plan, Bonett stated that the solutions being sought through this long-term strategy, in his view, will naturally factor in Malta's increasing population.

In this regard, Opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami criticised how Prime Minister Robert Abela said earlier this weekend that Malta's foreign population shall be increasing by 70,000 people over the next five years, and asked Minister Bonett how he, as minister responsible for transport, will look into this added, growing strain on public infrastructure.

He commented that "the pressure on our roads did not start yesterday" and stressed that Malta can no longer rely on a public transport system that is fully reliant on just its bus network.

During these PQs, Minister Bonett said that he extended a hand for the government and PN Opposition to work together, share data and knowledge, to address the country's traffic problem.

"If we sit down and work together, we can neutralise this subject together," Bonett said, pleading for convergence between both sides of Parliament on a way forward to address traffic in Maltese roads.

Bonett commented that, given how the PN came out with its own metro proposal during May's election campaign, it seems that the PN is not interested in collaborating with the government to resolve this issue. He noted that the government had informed the Nationalist Party what it and Arup had in mind, regarding its own metro proposal, while the PN did not reciprocate this.

These comments were addressed towards the Opposition's Shadow Minister for Sustainable Mobility, Ivan Castillo.

Transport Malta asked to look into methodology behind bus overcrowding studies by Bonett

Bonett also said that he is "not happy" with Transport Malta's bus overcrowding inspections, after it emerged from a TM study that just one case from over 52,000 inspections in 2024 and 2025 featured overcrowding in a bus ride.

This result was revealed in a recent parliamentary question (PQ) that was put forward by PN MP Julian Borg.

In this TM study, no cases of overcrowding were reported in Maltese buses out of 22,118 inspections throughout 2024 and a single case of overcrowding was identified from the 30,572 inspections carried out in 2025. In this PQ response, Bonett had stated that in the first five months of 2026, four cases of overcrowded buses were spotted from 16,026 inspections.

Discussing this on Monday, Bonett said that he is obliged by the Constitution of Malta to report these figures honestly, based on the information he is provided while answering PQs, though he is not happy with this study's results.

"I am not happy with this statistic," Bonett said, remarking that it does not add up with the complaints he hears when talking to people from all around the country on the national bus network.

Bonett told the House of Representatives that "overcrowding is one of the [main] issues affecting public transport today" and he believes that this study's methodology "could have been a lot better."

"I spoke to the CEO of Transport Malta when looking into this PQ and asked him to look into the methodology behind these inspections," Minister Bonett said, "Speak to the people because I want a real picture of what is happening."

He concluded that he will hold Transport Malta accountable, as well as the country's public transport system, for such figures to be true to the national situation.