Sant’Antnin car park, park-and-ride set to be completed by mid 2026

Sant’Antnin car park, park-and-ride set to be completed by mid-2026
By Hot Malta • 14 May 2024

The dusty expanse behind the old Sant’Antnin waste-to-energy plant in Marsascala is about to swap the clang of bulldozers for the soft thud of car doors. Transport Malta has confirmed that the long-heralded park-and-ride facility will open its gates in June 2026, finally giving South-Eastern commuters a dignified alternative to the daily crawl into Valletta.

For anyone who has ever left Zabbar at 06:30 only to reach Floriana by 08:15, the news feels almost cinematic. The €22 million project will deliver 1,050 parking bays, a two-storey solar-panelled roof, real-time bus information boards, and—crucially—an air-conditioned waiting lounge that looks more St Julian’s boutique hotel than traditional ħanut tal-linja. Two new bus lanes will funnel passengers from Sant’Antnin straight onto the Tal-Barrani artery, shaving a promised 20 minutes off the journey to the capital.

Culture of the coast, meet culture of convenience
Marsascala mayor Mario Calleja insists the scheme is “not just tarmac and timetables.” The design brief borrowed heavily from the village’s fishing-village DNA: wave-patterned benches cast in recycled glass, turquoise metalwork echoing the bay, and a façade mural by local artist Matthew Pandolfino that reimagines the traditional luzzu in electric-bus green. “We want commuters to feel they are starting the day in Marsascala, not in a generic concrete box,” Calleja told Hot Malta during a site walk-through last week.

That sense of place matters. Marsascala’s summer festa season—when the streets smell of imqaret and petards echo across the creek—draws thousands of visitors who now struggle to park anywhere closer than Żonqor. A proper park-and-ride could take 400 cars off the seafront each August evening, freeing up space for kiosks selling ħobż biż-żejt and allowing the brass band to march without dodging BMWs.

Environmental cross-currents
Environmental NGO Friends of the Earth has welcomed lower tailback emissions but warns the project must not become “a Trojan horse for further coastal over-development.” Spokesperson Annalise Falzon points to the adjacent Żonqor ODZ land earmarked for a tech village. “We’ll be watching like hawks to ensure the promised 500 indigenous trees are actually planted and that the drainage ponds are more than decorative puddles,” she said.

Transport Malta’s project director, Daniel Briffa, counters that the facility will generate 70 % of its own energy needs through rooftop PV panels and harvest rainwater to wash buses overnight. “We’re not just moving cars; we’re moving mindsets,” Briffa insists.

The human ripple effect
For Marsascala resident and mother-of-three Rachel Micallef, the countdown to 2026 is already on the fridge calendar. “My husband works at Mater Dei, I teach in Sliema. Between us we burn €350 a month in fuel and parking tickets,” she says. “If the bus is reliable, we’ll sell our second car and maybe—just maybe—start saving for the kids’ festa costumes again.”

Further up the coast, Birżebbuġa mayor Joseph Farrugia sees spin-off benefits for Pretty Bay’s cafés. “Tourists who park here can jump on the 91 to Valletta in the morning and be back for a swim and rabbit stew by noon,” he predicts, adding that Birżebbuġa will push for a dedicated pedestrian-bike lane linking Sant’Antnin to the promenade.

A national stitch in time
The Sant’Antnin project is the third pillar in government’s €90 million South-East mobility masterplan, after the Kordin flyover and the Għaxaq-Qormi distributor road. Critics argue the money could have electrified half the bus fleet, but Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia defends the integrated approach. “You can’t run electric buses if they’re stuck behind 10,000 single-occupant cars every morning,” he told parliament last month.

As concrete pours and cranes swing, the real test will be cultural: can Maltese drivers, wedded to their steering wheels since the 1980s, be persuaded to park, breathe, and let someone else do the driving? For Marsascala’s festa committee, the answer may come sooner than expected—they’ve already booked a brass-band welcome on opening day. June 2026 can’t come quickly enough.