Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1540705
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 OCTOBER 2025 NEWS festivals.mt/ttp the three palaces 27 October – 2 November 2025 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 He questioned whether enough people would give up their cars to make either of the projects viable. "I am duty bound to speak my mind about this because I don't want this country to go into something and then realise that we're making a mistake. If we get it wrong, we're royally screwed," Caruana had said. Caruana's comments con- trasted with statements made by Prime Minister Robert Abe- la a few weeks earlier when he resurrected the idea of a met- ro following Opposition leader Alex Borg's call for cross-party consensus on a mass transport system. An extensive proposal cost- ing more than €6 billion for an underground metro network across Malta was put forward by the government in 2021. The proposal was based on studies carried out by Arup, an interna- tional engineering company. Despite being showcased in a glitzy way on the eve of the 2022 election, the proposal was quiet- ly shelved in subsequent years, being deemed too expensive. However, commenting on the morrow of Caruana's bit- ing interview and the friction it caused in Cabinet, Robert Abela said fresh plans for a mass trans- port system would now cost €2.8 billion instead. The new system, he explained, would run both underground and overground thus cutting the original costs by more than half. The new plans being prepared by Bonett's ministry have not yet been unveiled. The government sources said the finance minister was not aware of the new plans when making his remarks. Howev- er, they suggested it is unlikely Caruana would have changed his mind since the PN proposal for a trackless tram, which he al- so criticised, was valued at €2.8 billion when originally unveiled in 2022. Similar concerns to those ex- ressed by the finance minis- ter are being echoed today by economist JP Fabri in his reg- ular weekly column in Malta- Today (see page 15). Fabri says the huge investment required for a metro would have to be accompanied by measures that encourage people to leave their car at home and use the under- ground. Such measures, he suggests, should include public road parking fees that reflect true land values, congestion charg- es for high-traffic zones, and a steep increase in registration and licences. New metro plans being prepared New mass transport plans being prepared by Chris Bonett's Transport Ministry have reduced the cost to €2.8 billion for a proposal that will see a hybrid system that would work both above ground and below ground (File photo)