DEAR SIR,
GABRIEL Vicens Regional Transport Minister is considering extending the Metro by 25% by adding 2 new sections to the existing 8 (Daily B Saturday). He concedes that the existing route should be used by about 10 million people to justify its cost. In fact only 1 million people are using it a shortfall of 90%. His solution is to increase the public debt and spend more money by extending the network. The blame for this financial debacle he places firmly on the general public you and I. We have a miss-guided culture of private car use. Unfortunately he has to overcome our stupid belief that it is the most comfortable and practical means of transport from A to B and worth the extra cost.
I suggest he starts his Orwellian re-indoctrination of the masses at the University. It is already served by the Metro and has thousands of young intelligent potential users. He will need good luck I went to there a couple of times and had a big problem finding a parking spot. More irritating was that most of the students' cars were better than mine! The Spanish economy is teetering on the need for a gigantic bail out through a live now, pay later philosophy. The main cause was irresponsible bank mortgages. The full depth of the problem is likely to be greater than expected as new financial disclosure rules kick in this year. A secondary but still major factor has been the flagrant over spending by government on glamorous projects such as (in Majorca) the Metro, Velodrome, Tram service to the Airport and the now stalled Playa de Palma renovation. These projects demonstrate not only our politician's lack of business nous but their excesses in looking out for the main chance for their own personal gain.
Mike Lillico, Playa de Palma