”Minister for Education, Justyne Caruana advised two months ago that she would be issuing an Edu Fast Ferry Card.” The Gozo University Group has said that ”to date, the students have not received this card, with multiple students enquiring when this card is to be issued.”
GUG, in a statement, stressed that they were ”never consulted regards this card nor when it will be issued.”
”Some students have asked the responsible authorities themselves, yet the answer was that this card was put on hold.” GUG went on to say that it had even sent an email to the respective authorities, yet to date there is still no response.”
GUG stated that ”an email was also sent to the Fast Ferry company who responded with the reply that this project had been put ‘on hold’ and suggested to reach out to the Minister for Education for more information.”
The organisation appealed to the responsible authorities, for the card ”to be issued as soon as possible because this will decrease the financial amount used daily by Gozitan students to commute between the two island, for education purposes.”
GUG also urged authorities to reintroduce the X300 route. ”This route was direct between Msida and Cirkewwa but was stopped with the introduction of the Fast Ferry.”
”From what could be seen in the last few moths, the Fast Ferry was not possible to operate due to the weather and therefore the only option left for the students is to use the Gozo Channel in order to commute,” it said.
The organisation explained that some students do not use the Fast Ferry because of the disadvantage of making them sick or because of the weather which makes it less appealing to travel with the Fast Ferry.
”Therefore the Gozitan students are left with the only option, of using the X1, with multiple stops along its route, and which most of the time is jam packed and therefore they have wait for the following bus,” it said.
GUG concluded by reminding the responsible authorities, of ”the challenges faced by Gozitan students.”