Can somebody stick a microphone under the prime minister’s nose, please?
Published:
October 27, 2013 at 11:24am
And ask him directly, point blank, which Maltese bus-operators – Paramount is being mentioned to me rather a lot – have already formed an unofficial consortium to take over the bus service once Arriva is forced out.
It is pointless asking Transport Mizzi Joe Mizzi. He is HMV: his master’s voice.
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Oh God, not Paramount. Every time I’ve been on one of those horrid buses they have no airconditioning on ‘because the cable just broke’. And they never seem to fix it..
The demise of Arriva though, while disturbing, would be no match to the financial anxiety that would be created should this trend be prelude to the replacement of HSBC with the Bank of China.
HSBC is a Chinese bank.
[Daphne – It is not.]
If I recollect correctly, Paramount’s consortium were runners up to the winning bid (Arriva/Tumas Group).
No, it was another large company called Transdev.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2010-08-01/news/arriva-consortium-selected-for-new-bus-service-278175/
If you read the article and think about what we had and what we probably will get as a replacement when Plan B is rolled out…
Not so much his master’s voice as his master’s chihuahua.
He also needs to say what the ‘secret’ report contained (which the government made secret) regarding the bendy bus fires.
I am told by two separate sources that the buses’ diesel fuel lines in the engine bay where maliciously loosened slightly to leak just enough diesel to drop on other engine components and catch fire immediately. No wonder the fires occurred in three days.
Some common sense is needed here :
What are the best chances for a bus/car to heat up and perhaps,maybe catch fire?
When it is fully loaded going uphill at around noon in the summer heat, is the answer.
When did the bendy bus catch alight? At night, going downhill and empty of passengers.
Loose fuel line connections on the return line won’t stop a diesel engine, but can cover an engine with diesel.
Thanks, Gahan, for making it technical.
Are there any ‘journalists’ out there who have the guts to do so? I doubt it, as they all piss in their pants when it comes to asking the Prime Minister certain questions.
Are all the Maltese ‘journalists’ cowards? If this goes on, any other issues will be dealt with in the same manner by the PL government who knows that no so-called journalists will deign to carry out an investigative story on the issue of the bus transport system, and on other issues for that matter.
Actually Daphne, they might as well just stick the microphone up his arse. The reply will probably be pretty much the same… I am sure the smirk will be.
With apologies to your readers, but I am now starting to get really annoyed about the nincompoops in government and those in Opposition.
Tumas Group had 33% of Arriva Malta shares, but sold them last year. This can be read in many ways.
Indeed. And yet Arriva’s financial statements could probably only be read one way.
If a given number of passengers, at a given price for a given number of routes already indicates as of year one that the original capital expenditure plus other fixed and ongoing variable costs, cannot be sufficiently covered to the point of at least break-even within a predetermined minimum number of years, thus guaranteeing a return on the capital employed that is commercially acceptable, and without the need of significantly increased subsidies in future years to balance the books, then something is significantly wrong with Arriva’s economic model.
Given the possibility of certain indicators, as well as the inelasticity of demand for a service, that is vital to any modern day country, and which therefore requires not only undue government involvement, but also a need to fit this service within certain social parameters (price and delivery), it may be no wonder that the Tumas Group would have backed out if its investment. Public transport can never be a fully viable commercial set up in the full sense of the word.
All that said, the possibility of insider information as to what is probably about to unfold, cannot be discounted.
Ah so Muscat is chummy now with Chetchuti Caruana?
It seems the consortium is made up of Paramount, Garden of Eden and Cancu.