Malta’s transport authority paid metro consultants Arup Group more than €260,000 in 2025 to carry out a feasibility study and present a revised plan.

Invoices released following a freedom of information request by Times of Malta show that Transport Malta (TM) paid the engineering consultancy company in four instalments for what was described as “scoping and visits for transport advisory services framework”.

The invoices show Arup was paid €40,000 in March, €85,000 in April, €39,687.50 in September and €97,670 in October, bringing the total to €262,357.50.

The latest payments add to the €1.3 million paid to Arup between 2018 and 2022, according to documents tabled in parliament in 2022.

After consulting with Arup since 2018, in 2021 the government unveiled a three-line underground metro system with 25 stations that would cost around €6.2 billion to build. However, those plans were quietly shelved and left out of budget projections in subsequent years.

Discussion about a metro system re-emerged in early 2025, when Transport Minister Chris Bonett said the government would announce a new mass public transport system by the end of the year. At the time, Bonett was publicly considering a rapid bus transit system rather than a metro.

Later in the year, Prime Minister Robert Abela resurrected the idea of a metro network, revealing that discussions with Arup were ongoing.

Weeks later, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana poured cold water on plans for a mass transport system, warning the country could be “royally screwed” if it went wrong. Caruana had not met with Arup at this time.

A day later, Abela said Arup had presented revised metro plans estimated to cost €2.8 billion, less than half the cost of earlier proposals. The revised plans envisage a “hybrid” system combining underground and overground routes, including sections running through undeveloped land.

While the government launched its transport master plan last November, the document made no mention of a metro, instead raising the prospect of a bus rapid transit system. Transport Malta has insisted that mass transport options “do not exclude a metro system”.