Gozo and Malta are still separated by a body of water. But you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. There has not been much talk about a possible Gozo-Malta undersea tunnel ever since Prime Minister Robert Abela had indicated that this was ‘no longer a priority’.
Meanwhile, the two definitive studies that surveyed public support for the inter-island tunnel remain the 2017 study by Marvin Formosa (based on a sample of 247 Gozitans) and the 2018 study by Vincent Marmarà (based on a sample of 423 Maltese and 401 Gozitans). The studies are public and available off the Transport Malta website. Both found a staggering 82% and 83% of respondents respectively in favour of such a tunnel.
Surveys, and their results, must always be considered as products of their time. Questions, opinions and positions can and do change and shift. For example, the Gozo Tourism Association (GTA) now disapproves of the tunnel whose idea, it has declared, should be ‘scrapped once and for all’. Out comes a statement by an expert, a politician or the representative of a concerned organisation, and public opinion tends to sway in response. And the ferry service itself has seen improvements. In the 5-6 years since the Formosa-Marmarà studies were done, a fourth ship (the hapless Nicolaos) has been added to the Gozo Channel fleet, and Gozo HighSpeed is offering a 45-minute Mġarr-Valletta-Mġarr route (without vehicles).
On Saturday morning, 11 November 2023, a group of 54 University of Malta sociology students set out to find out more. They have been following my study unit exploring island life, and were briefed about the complex manner in which transport infrastructure, and ‘fixed links’ in particular – tunnels, bridges, causeways – can change island connectivity and, following on that, island development. For Gozo, the choices are clear: would it prefer to become more similar to Malta, with its economy – and construction industry – on steroids and more cosmopolitan lifestyle; or would it prefer to conserve a more sedate tempo, uphold a more rustic ambience, remain a (relatively) quieter place, a distinct ‘island of villages’? A fixed link, in and of itself, does not cause anything. But: it certainly facilitates and privileges certain development routes over others. Quo vadis Gozo?
My crop of university students are themselves a mixed bunch: Maltese residents, Gozitan residents, Gozitan students resident in Malta, and international students, from Europe and beyond. They prepared a set of open-ended, semi-structured questions, some of which solicited opinions about whether or not a subsea tunnel between Malta and Gozo was deemed ‘a good idea’. They (and I) caught the ferry from Ċirkewwa to Gozo, and then wandered around Gozo, politely asking questions. They entered into casual conversations with foreign tourists, Maltese day trippers to Gozo, Gozitan families, Gozo Channel Company employees, police officers in Gozo, foreign workers in Gozo, Gozitan students studying in Malta. Let me be clear: this was not a scientific study, and no attempt was made to secure a representative sample. Still, at least 765 discrete responses were secured, which is a mean of around 14 responses per student: 249 respondents (32%) stated they were in favour of ‘the tunnel’; 449 (59%) expressed their disagreement; and 67 (9%; mainly tourists) expressed no opinion, were unsure or simply indifferent. Interestingly, some of those who said ‘yes’ to the tunnel indicated that they would support it only as long as it would service a metro, and not automobiles.
This was a ‘straw poll’, based on a sample that was merely convenient and indicative. Still, one may hazard to suggest that the overwhelming pro-tunnel majorities identified by both Formosa and Marmarà some years back have been washed away by events.
The same students were asked whether they would support the sub-sea Gozo-Malta tunnel, now that they have actually conversed with many and developed a keener sense of the arguments in favour and against such a major investment. Out of the 51 responses to this question, 11 said ‘yes’ and 31 said ‘no’, with the rest (9) undecided.
Godfrey Baldacchino is professor of sociology at the University of Malta.
