Hi ingliza,

Yes The Times are correct about Malta. Mind you we could have told them that years ago couldn't we?

Mind you I'm hardly surprised with the position of the UK. I don't think ultimately happiness as the article indicates, depends on wealth. Yesterday was the first sunny day in the midlands after having a continual 9 days that were dreary grey dark and cold with lights on all day to do any work! Really depressing!!!!!

Trev

Hi Trev,
Yes you are right, we could have told them that years ago couldn't we.

It has been quite cold over here this last week or two,
http://217.145.4.56/ind/news.asp?newsitemid=26548 not as cold as the UK I imagine.
It is nice that Malta doesn't have too many problems though. The litter problem should soon be solved by the new "Green Wardens" handing out on the spot fines. Too much traffic into Valletta, I think I might have come up with a solution! You are a clever person so tell me what you think of my idea. Considering second hand commercial vehicles are imported from the UK to Malta and also considering that Malta has officially been declared a happy place, how about importing these and installing them along the sea front from St Julian's to Valletta?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BUTLINS-MINEHEAD-MONORAIL-OVER-OUTDOOR-POOL-M17-PC_W0QQitemZ6243131807QQcategoryZ101145QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hi ingliza,

Sorry I have not replied sooner but I've been rather busy. Regarding your idea I'm afraid I'm totally baffled since if these commercial vehicles were parked all along the coast from St Julians to Valletta, wouldn't this cause more congestion problems - or am I missing something?? - cause I sure ain't that clever! (well my wife doesn't think so!).

I used to think it strange that in the Maltese language they have a specific name for train, (I think it's ferrovija), and yet there are no trains in Malta! However, I think I read somewhere that there used to be trains many years ago that ran along the coast. Do you know if that is correct? Maybe a railway service could solve the congestion problems in Valletta?

Trev

see here Trev....

http://website.lineone.net/~alan.c.edwards/mtrail.html

Cheers Fallan,

Thanks for the excellent link. Will purchase the book next time in Malta,

Trev

Hi Trev and Fallan, great link that, it makes for fascinating reading aswell, but has anyone noticed the old spellings of Maltese place names on the list of stations such as Rabatto, Curmi, Taschbiech, Musta etc etc, I would be very interested if anyone could shed some light on this and why and when they changed to there current spellings.

Prosit
Sliema2

Sorry, just me having a bit of a laugh, I probally didn't explain my silly idea that well, the link at the bottom was a postcard of a Butlins monorail.
Malta has a problem of too many cars and too little space. A few years back someone suggested an underground railway could be built. This would cost a fortune and take forever to build no doubt. Rather than underground, what about over ground - a monorail. The Sliema and St Julians bus route is the busiest, and the avantages a monorail would have over the Sliema/Valletta ferry are it can pick up people along the way and it can run in bad weather. Butlins no longer have monorails so I was wondering if a cheap second hand one can be tracked down to install along the coast, Malta like Butlins being a happy holiday destination.

A very good idea would be for a cable car running from just behind Mellieha church to Mellieha beach. In the summer months the buses just can't cope with the amount of people wanting to get back up the hill

Hi ingliza,

Well, now I can see what you mean! Though I agree a monorail might just be the answer to transport problems I also think that it might not really look right in Malta.

I really don't know the answer to the congestion caused by too many cars since as you are probably aware we have the same problems here in the UK especially in the cities. It'll be a brave Government both here or in Malta that produces the 'painful' legislation that 'encourages' folks not to drive their cars!!!!

Trev