You read it here first, not that it matters. Qabza fil-kwalita, from international transport leader Arriva to Paramount tal-Mosta.
Published:
December 15, 2013 at 11:02pm
15th December 2013 and finally Times of Malta gets the first inkling that it may have been used as a tool to further somebody’s business interests by helping fuel the fires against Arriva.
The result?
A public transport system run by amateurs. Again.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131215/local/paramount-interested-in-taking-over-arriva.499166#.Uq4mhycueV4
And don’t we finally have exactly what the gangs in the background had in mind all along? Riddle, undermine, target and sabotage anything and everything which Arriva did from day one … until this monopoly is eventually ‘given’ back to those who never wanted to let go of it in the first place. Sickening.
Sa fejn naf jien il-Paramount huma tal-familja ta’ Dr Paul Chetcuti Caruana, ex sindku tal-Mosta (PL)
Back to the golden years, with the difference being that the peasants out in full force with loads of money in their pockets thanks to the nasty PN governments.
Do you mean this one?
Malta today http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/02/17/t3.html
17.02.2008
….Mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana famously declared his return to politics in February last year to sister paper Illum as returning “from the reserves squad”.
“I am now reporting back to active duty. I am in the SAS, the special forces of the Labour Party and am responding to the party’s call.”
He described himself as being part of Labour’s “Special Forces, always ready for any circumstance.”
Why am I not surprised? The whole charade has been orchestrated since before Labour won the election – the hate that the Labour Party spewed on Arriva since its inception made it a certainty that it wouldn’t be allowed to work well.
Then the bendy buses conveniently catching spontaneous fire, and the die was cast for takeover by a Labour klikka.
To hell with the environment – what’s important is to make the PN look bad. Any bets on Palumbo being next; we already witnessed the first seeds being spread by the GWU.
How third world can we get? And then they want foreign direct investment, or so they say.
All in the PL family.
Judging by the way things are going the PL do not want foreign investment so they can continue blaming former ON governments for their failures. Asp they may be aiming for a about once public funds run out due to the excessive unnecessary over spending.
…former PN governments….
The Maltese people put up with the most appalling public transport service in Europe for decades. Once Arriva moved to the island, expectations, all of a sudden, went sky-high.
I will repeat what I said many times:
When Arriva moved to Malta they did not simply offer a service. They had to provide the very basics which, until then, were nonexistent: train drivers, set up an infrastructure (centralised maintenance/cleaning/etc), design routes, introduce GPS, ticketing system…)….
Arriva is one of the world’s foremost transport companies. It functions perfectly elsewhere – so why do people assume that it can’t provide a good service on a miniature piece of rock? Do these people realise how stupid they sound?
Next on the list Palumbo – Malta Drydocks once more – any bets.
Another Labour government / National Bank of Malta type heist that has been brewing for some time now.
The Sunday Times refers to the ideal solution being that Arriva simply hands over the public transport contract, together with its multi-million Euro investment in vehicles and infrastructure, to a Paramount-led consortium (no doubt formed by the usual suspects).
That done, Transport Minister John Mizzi will then no doubt experience a John Dalli type miracle and suddenly find that the bendy buses are quite safe after all. And that the bendy buses will actually handle a bigger amount of passengers and so reduce the number of vehicles needed for the job, thereby improving traffic flow and cutting down carbon emissions.
The forced take over of Arriva’s assets will also scare off foreign investors, and discourage existing ones from staying on, let alone expand. That will rapidly lead to fewer jobs and to redundancies, but as Muscat famously said “Wot de hack!”
Nothing can beat Labour – when it comes to f*cking up a country, that is.
Disgusting.
This whole saga is unfolding exactly as many of us had predicted when those bendy buses caught fire. They did a very poor job of making look like a coincidence, with no less than three buses going up in smoke in the span of a few days.
Partit tad-dilettanti u r-raċanċ, għad-dilettanti u r-raċanċ. I think that sums up the Labour Party quite well.
And what about the millions the old bus owners received in subsidies etc? U halluna ja amateurs.
The GWU was indirectly giving Paramount Garage a”puxxjatura” to get this contract , all along, by calling industrial action for every change the company wanted to make, especially when the Tumas Group pulled out(sold their share to Arriva) of the company.From day one 300 drivers did not turn up for work. Not to mention the all round hostility the company got from the media.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090916/local/bus-owners-in-bid-for-tender.273517#.Uq6A1s3QQXw
The Maltese companies involved in some of the consortia include coach company Paramount Garage, car hire and leasing company John’s Garage and Gasan.
This is the pre-election sweet talk.
http://election.josephmuscat.com/il-moviment-se-jibqa-ghaddej-bkampanja-pozittiva/?lang=mt
“Mistoqsi dwar it-trasport pubbliku, Joseph Muscat qal li Gvern Ġdid huwa kommess li jidħol f’diskussjonijiet mal-kumpanija Arriva u mal-Kunsilli Lokali, biex isir titjib tas-servizz. Saħaq li l-problema mhijiex il-kumpanija, imma t-toroq imfassla mill-Gvern.”
Who will be next? I think Palumbo is next. Time will tell.
Come off it and out with the truth, for once. Discussions were held between PL and Paramount way ahead of the March elections.
I am still wondering about the role played by Times of Malta in this sorry saga since the day the public transport contract was awarded to Arriva. Has the the Times been putty in Labour’s hands since after the 2008 election ?
If Arriva have lost Eur 35 million, how are Paramount going to turn a profit? Will they be given a much larger subsidy? Will they be allowed to only run profitable routes? Or will they raise prices?
Paramount, sure, who else. It used to service all the coffee mornings and Mass Meetings transport for the Labour in the Goltin jers.
I remember my father saying that at one point Leo Grech of Paramount was nearly bankrupt but then in the Golden Years Mintoff assigned him the task of taking students to schools and his business began flourishing. Now it seems that the Labour want to take it a step further, giving him a near total monopoly in public transport.
The bendy buses suffered many more incidents in Malta than in London, I knew why all along.
Oh well, this country has officially gone to the dogs. Thanks Labour, Go dig Malta a hole, and bury it in it please.
(I’ve never been so embarrassed of my Nationality before)
If anyone asks, I’m Belgian.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, allow me to put my humble prediction regarding life after Arriva. Paramount to get the north of Malta contract and Caqnu to get the south one. Any bets?
Inexperience of The Tmes or collusion?
Labour never wanted Arriva, they put spokes in the wheels from day one (Ask the GWU).
Now we sadly know why, back to the old thugs (not all of them of course, some were nice)
Back to the Golden years?
Already much worse.
Iva l-‘Paramount’ hija tal-familja tal-mara tat-tabib Pawlu Chetcuti Caruana magħrufin bħala ta’ Ljoni.
Paramount has not yet taken over public transport but it is already evident what level of service we should expect from them.
http://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2013/12/16/trailer-u-kowc-jahbtu-ma-zewg-karozzi.12998
Went with a parish to a trip to gozo, the Paramount bus was totally without airconditioning, this was in summer. Next year the same thing happened. They said the ribbon was damaged. Every year it’s the same story with them.
This is what we will get, sub standard servce with Paramount.
The talks held between the government and Arriva were of PARAMOUNT importance.