Traffic is no longer an inconvenience; it is a burden on the economy, Borg says

Traffic is no longer just an inconvenience, but it has steadily become a burden on the economy and is negatively affecting quality of life, Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg said on Friday. Speaking in Swieqi, Borg said that the Labour government has regularly come up with plans to say that it has a solution to the traffic problem, but these proposals are never implemented. The PL is doing the same thing again in this election campaign, but it has no credibility on the subject. Added to this, the Finance Minister is not willing to fund the project, Borg said. The traffic problem, he said, has exploded in the last 13 years of a Labour government. The public transport service is itself a victim of this, as buses get caught up in long traffic jams. The Labour government's solution to this is that while on the one hand it wants to pay for people to give up their driving licence, and on the other hand it is offering a grant for people to buy bigger cars. This is the confusion that the PL finds itself in, Borg said. Traffic is costing the country €770 million and the expense will grow to €900 million, he said. Conversely, the PN this morning presented a credible alternative, a project that will revolutionise the transport system in Malta, as it pledged to build the first underground link between the airport and Pembroke. Under a Labour government, traffic has caused disruption, it is leading to additional stress, and is negatively affecting quality of life. This has become normal when it should not be, and the PN is determined to carry out its plans for an underground system, with the first line to be completed within five years. Borg added that Nationalist MEPs are already working within...