Initiatives and Projects
EU Funded
PROMETEUS focused on the Priority Axis 7 “Shifting towards a more low-carbon transport sector” of the Cohesion Fund 2014-2020 Operational Programme I of Malta (OPI), and in particular on Investment Priority 7c - Developing and improving environmentally friendly (including low noise) and low-carbon transport systems, including inland waterways and maritime transport, ports, multimodal links and airport infrastructure, in order to promote sustainable regional and local mobility. The PROMETEUS project had a total budget of €1, 389,765 and Transport Malta was funded €279,150 for this project.
EnerNETMob aimed to draft, test and improve parallel “Sustainable Electromobility Plans” according to common standards and low carbon policies, in order to establish an “Interregional Electromobility Network” across several cities of the transnational MED area. To this end, the project promoted land-sea intermodality using electric transport systems, whilst implementing inter-urban and interregional pilot networks of Electric Vehicles Supply Equipment (EVSE) also co-powered by Renewable Energy Sources. The total budget of the EnerNETMob project was €5,74,802 and Transport Malta was funded €396,896 for this project.
CIVITAS DESTINATIONS was a four-year Innovative Actions project co-funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme under contract no. 689031. The project, which had a total value of €20 million had the main aim of integrating sustainable tourism and mobility strategies through the development of a series of innovative solutions in six European islands. Malta has been allocated a budget of €2M for the implementation of nine measures. The measures include the drafting of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for the Valletta region, a sustainable urban mobility plan award, the promotion of shared transport systems, last mile delivery of goods, curbing high polluting vehicles from the road, promoting sustainable mobility among tourists, a Green Mobility Hotel Award and Labelling Scheme, smart parking management system for Valletta and the integration of ferries into Public Transport.
Technical Support Instrument (TSI): Building on the experience and best practise gained through the SUMP development exercise during the Civitas DESTINATIONS, the SUMP will be expanded to cover the whole of the Maltese Islands so that each of the six regions will have its own plan taking into consideration the needs of the area and also including a sustainable urban logistics plan (SULP). This will be possible through awarded funding and support through the TSI.
NAPCORE stands for National Access Point Coordination Organization for Europe; it is a newly formed organization to coordinate and harmonize more than 30 mobility data platforms all over Europe. EU requirements state that each Member State must establish a National Access Point (NAP); a place where traffic and travel data is published and made available for use, for example in travel information services. NAPCORE improves the interoperability of mobility related data in Europe with mobility data standard harmonization and alignment. The establishment of a NAP for Malta is beneficial to form part of a Single European Transport Area. The setup of a NAP facilitates access, exchange, and reuse of transport related data, helping to support the provision of EU-wide interoperable travel and traffic services to end users.
SSH CENTRE: Transport Malta is acting as a network city as part of the SSH CENTRE (Social Sciences & Humanities for Climate, Energy and Transport Research Excellence) Project. The project seeks to bridge between research and on-the-ground climate action in cities and embed knowledge to inform long-term initiatives such as the Energy Cities HUB networks. This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to activities that will generate deeper understandings of how regional-level governance can contribute to urgent climate, energy, and mobility transitions.
Recovery and Resilience Plan: Transport Malta is working within Component 2 and Component 3 of Malta’s recovery and Resilience Plan. Component 2 supports Malta’s commitments towards the reduction of national GHG emissions and contributes towards national efforts aimed at cleaner, smarter and more sustainable mobility. This follows the concept of the European Flagship ‘Recharge and refuel’ through the promotion of future-proof clean technologies and accelerating the use of zero emission vehicles. Locally this translates into encouraging the use of collective and multimodal transport, providing free access to scheduled road public transport, expediting the finalisation and implementation of the SUMP, reducing the socio-economic and environmental impact of vehicles in urban areas through the regeneration of public squares and community spaces and promoting remote working in the public service thus reducing the number of trips on the road network.
Integrated Transport Management Systems (ITMS): As part of the objective to integrate road-based transport systems and improve the safety and efficiency of transport by making the most of digital technologies and information services, while encouraging modal shift to lower transport emissions, an ITMS Platform is being developed to support the setting up of Malta’s National Access Point. The platform’s design will seek to integrate and interact with already existing Intelligent Transport Systems, including traffic management and travel-related information services, and to accommodate for any future systems which will be deployed, as part of the Road Transport Operational Objectives stated in the National Transport Strategy and Transport Master Plan. The ITMS Platform aims to establish a communication layer foundation, from which in the future advanced computer analysis and automated decision support may become a reality, taking advantage of Artificial intelligence capabilities to simulate, predict and plan traffic management operations in a multi-modal environment.
SMITHS: This project aims to encourage a modal shift from private car use to collective, sustainable, and alternative low-carbon transport modes, improve air quality and reduce GHC emissions. The different components of the project were designated to facilitate intermodality and address cleaner air through the introduction of various intermodal choices. In particular, the project includes the upgrading of Ferry infrastructure and the introduction of segregated cycling lanes and pedestrian paths along the road network. SMITHS also works towards the transition to a low-carbon transport system through the introduction of a new multimodal hub in Gozo including a park-and-ride facility operated by clean collective modes of transport and, the extension of national electric vehicle charging networks across Malta and Gozo.
MTIP as the project coordinator/contractor person of the project regularly organizes coordination meetings among all parties to follow upon the progress on implementation, disbursement, reporting and other obligations of the beneficiary organizations in addition to, seperate individual meetings or requests for clarifications, updates and follow up with the beneficiary organizations concerned, as necessary, for the smooth running of the project.
SMITHS directly contributes towards the provision of better Ferry infrastructure, safer cycling, safer pedestrian access, and non-carbon transport. The low-carbon and holistic transport system to be created as a result of this project shall be directly promoted through the information and awareness-raising campaign forming part of the same project.
National Initiatives
The National Cycling Strategy for the Maltese Islands is being revised following stakeholder consultations made in 2018. Regular meetings take place with personnel from Infrastructure Malta to discuss updates of the revised Cycling Policy. The final version is to incorporate the essence of comments obtained following a public consultation, statistical references, and consolidation with other national and European Strategies where applicable.
The Government of Malta had proposed an electoral measure EM 04.043 aimed at studying the potential consideration of a Close Passing By Legislation. In this regard, Transport Malta had appointed consultants to prepare a report that studies the possible alternatives for Malta, and from which recommendation and a set of measures could be inferred. Several consultations have been organized inviting a number of stakeholders to participate and provide their feedback on the document prepared by the consultant. The entities who have provided their feedback are the Malta Insurance Association, Local Councils Association, Malta Police Force, Planning Authority, Infrastructure Malta, and NGO group Rota. The document is being finalised.
Schools outreach: In an effort to reach students, a series of initiatives are ongoing targeting from primary to post-secondary educational institutions. Primary school aged children have been invited to artistically show what sustainable mobility means to them. This took the form of a competition where the response was overwhelming. An exhibition of the entries was held on Transport Malta premises in Ħal Lija on March 21, 2022, which the public was invited to visit. Secondary and post-secondary schools were invited to register for sessions in which a member of our team met with students and have an open discussion with them on their challenges but also opportunities about becoming more sustainable in their travel needs as they start to gain more independence.
A Red-Light Enforcement System (RLES) is being implemented in strategic junctions in Bugibba, Floriana, Marsaxlokk and Gattard in Blata l-Bajda. The aim is to automatically detect traffic violations by using non-intrusive sensors technology. The system shall be capable of: capturing multiple infracting vehicles simultaneously with relevant data on the type of violation, date, time, site name and location of the violation, registration number of the vehicle.
Following Government’s plan to make more alternative transport options easily and widely available, public transport will be provided free of charge to all as from October 2022. Support with regards to the planning phase prior to implementation is being provided.
In a bid to explore the travel behaviour of Transport Malta employees, a mobility survey was conducted. The results of this survey will feed into a Green Travel Plan being developed for the Authority; an initial step towards establishing specific solutions aiming to shift TM employees away from their personal car and using alternative modes of transport.
Grant Scheme for a Green Travel Plan Industry This grant scheme was targeted for private enterprises. Through this initative, businesses were encouraged to develop a Green Travel Plan and implement the measures proposed in these plans. A 2-year action plan with consideration for a minimum of 2 different alternative modes of mobility in the first year and an additional mode of mobility for the following year was required. The grant was in the form of a reimbursed contribution and is split in three categories namely €24,000 for large enterprises, €15,000 for medium and €10,000 for small and micro enterprises. TM awarded 4 private business for the proposed Green Travel Plans for their employees respectively.
Grant Scheme for the Implementation of Active Mobility or Citizen Engagement Measures - Open to NGO’s and Local Councils This grant scheme was open to all Local Councils and NGO’s for the implementation of projects related to sustainable/micro mobility and citizen engagement measures. The main impact was expected to be the reduction of emissions and a better quality of life for the residents. The implementation of facilities is to encourage walking and cycling and insitage a much needed behaviour change as well as promote alternative modes of transport. The measurements implemented will also make the localities more attractive for visitors through an improved urban environment. TM received a good number of applications, and 10 local councils and NGO’s will be awarded.
Education
Continuous efforts are made to increase the capabilities of our team and share knowledge with interested parties and the general public. Following an open call, a training course on cycling infrastructure is currently being delivered. This is the result of a fruitful collaboration between Transport Malta, the Embassy of the Netherlands, and the EIT, where experts in the subject will be providing participants with the tools for understanding and designing cycling infrastructure that is adequate for the local setting.
Mobility Ambassadors & Mobilithon (Innocap): The project goal is to build a strong innovative community around urban mobility through the organisation of a Mobilithon (hackathon focused on mobility) and the creation of a student ’mobility ambassador’ programme with training and education. The training, delivered by MCAST, is a blended training course which focuses on developing an understanding of today’s mobility challenges and the solutions proposed in the sustainable mobility paradigm. The training will introduce systems thinking tools and methodologies for the Mobility Ambassadors and participants of the Mobilithon (citizens, students, young professionals, practioners), to understand the complexity of mobility systems and travel behaviour and come up with innovative solutions for a more sustainable urban mobility future in their city. The Mobilithon, organised by PAF, MCAST and VDC, presents urban mobility challenges proposed by cities. In this case, we shall be presenting same, and citizens/students/youth shall be called and encouraged to propose solutions.
Young Innovators is an experimental programme aimed to introduce a systems innovation approach to 12-18 years old to foster social awareness and entrepreneurial thinking towards tacking climate change challenges in the school environment through visual thinking and participatory techniques. During 2021, MCAST has trained 20 teachers and their students have been giving challenges by MECP on sustainable mobility, e-waste, and renewable energies. This year, in 2022, we would be collaborating with JAYE Malta, aiming to train 35 more teachers and engage a minimum of 85 students.
Foundation for Educational Services (FES) Through FES and Skolasajf a dedicated team of TM employees from different directorates had the opportunity to reach different groups of children and adolescents, by visiting 4 centres around the island. These informative sessions incorporated talks about Electromobility, Walking and Cycling, Road and Sea Safety as well as Public Transport. A competition was also held at each centre and 2 lucky winners left on each occasion with a bicycle and hemet. Such collaboration has been a success as it helped reach a vast volume of students. Plans for furture collaborations are currently ongoing as we strongly believe that our future generations are the hope to create a shift in mentality and awareness on topics such as Climate Change, Safety and Sustainability. Apart from these 4 centres which we visited in person, we also had a large number of centres which opted for our online informative sessions. These sessions were held daily by 1 of our dedicated memebers of staff with the help of students that are employed with the Authority during the summer period.
School Talk Sessions Throughout the past scholastic year (2021/2022) and this year (2022/2023) we had the opportunity to deliver talks in the majority of Primary and Secondary Schools, once again promoting the use of different means of transport such as buses, the Ferry service, water taxis and of course walking and cycling as an alternative to the private car. These activites not only helped us pass on the message that we need a shift in mentality but also helped us gather the feedback needed to continue planning and market such changes. Again, these talks were welcomed very positively.
