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Harbour Line (Valletta,Marsa,Cospicua,Zabbar,Marsascala)
Old Line (Valletta,hamrun,Bkara,Qormi,Attard,Zebbug,Rabat,M dina)
University Line (Msida,University,Hospital, Birkirkara,Mosta )

These would appear to be about 2 Km apart.

Does Mdina even get the traffic? When I was in Malta it
had significantly less buses than other destinations.

Sliema Line (Valletta,Sliema, St Julians)

Is there an overground route for this. It is pretty built up.
OTOH it migh be possible to build as a submersed tunnel
along the coast-line. That could be fun!

i dont know if it would be cost effective to include the far
nothern/southern (20 km away) tips of the island. apart from certain
holidays they are not badly affected by traffic at all.

Do you mean Salina/Bugibba. ISTM that this is an area that
can generate substantial passanger traffic. Even if it isn't so
congested by road traffic it is likely to show a better cost
benefit than a line terminating in Mosta.

are running/maintenance costs mainly linked to distance or number of
stops?

i think connecting gozo would be comparable in complexity to the
channel tunnel.

Agreed. Gozo is out of the question.

So far these are what will be needed so far

trains 4 short trains (3 cars) x 2 for both directions + 4 backup
trains

This is one train every 30-40 minutes?
Looking at the frequency of the buses, this isn't enough.

laying track 100km x both directions

This seems too much:
1) for only 20 stations.
2) Separate lines 2 Km apart is not cost effective.
Build one line which splits if you must serve Mdina.
3) with only one train per direction on each line, why are you
building full length double track?

leveling ground 50km
spanning bridges 2km
tunnels 10km
1 train yard
1 train HQ
20 stations

This is not enough. It is a waste of the rest of the infrastructure
and stations 5 Km apart cannot replace a bus service.

Are you not going to serve the airport?

tim