Resumen
Over the past 50 years, Malta?s transportation planning has been geared towards the private vehicle. This approach, coupled with a lack of investment in public transportation has permitted a population of just over 400,000 to go from 150,000 vehicles in 1990 to over 335,000 today (NSO, 2014). This has resulted in the detriment of urban spaces, congestion, noise, and high costs being incurred due to the dominance of vehicles, despite a highly dense population. Extensive research was therefore carried out in order to assess the possibility of introducing a mass rapid transit system for such a small catchment, and to determine whether the cost of implementing such a system is economically, socially and environmentally favourable. The research focused on studying the dynamics of the islands? urban development through a comparative analysis of the urban development of other cities which were planned according to principles of transit-oriented development. In particular, the study analysed the development of the urban fabric, understanding demographic shifts, mapping origin-destination matrices and studying the properties of various transportation modes with the aim of creating a modal shift away from the private vehicle. The results of the research propose a network for a mass rapid transit system in Malta, which would form part of a multi-modal system designed to reduce the use of private modes of travel, mitigating social, economic and environmental costs through improved mobility and air quality. This paper will present a network together with the identification of strategic locations for stations within the Maltese urban fabric considering environmental implications while still allowing for further economic growth.