As Transport Malta announced a number of changes to the route network in a statement sent to the media by Arriva, it emerged yesterday that the new bus route network plans drawn up by Halcrow, a UK-based transport planning consultancy, were presented to the government in the previous legislature.
However, according to Joe Sammut, the Labour Party’s spokesman for transport, then Minister for Urban Development and Roads Jesmond Mugliett rejected these plans because they were deemed not feasible at the time.
“From the information I have, the plans for the new bus routes had already been rejected once by the then Minister in charge of Malta’s public transport.
“However, this company kept insisting that the new routes planned would greatly improve the service of Malta’s public transport, and in the end its persuasion paid off, since it managed to sell these plans to Transport Malta a few months into the current legislature.
“It is evident that these new routes are not working. The government should ask this foreign company to return the money and give us back the old and effective bus routes,” Dr Sammut said.
However, when contacted, Mr Mugliett denied Dr Sammut’s claims, saying that he was not presented with any plans from Halcrow regarding new bus routes during his time in charge, although the government had at that time been analysing new ways of how to improve Malta’s bus system.
“At the time, we were looking at expanding the Valletta terminus to accommodate more buses, rather than reducing the number of buses operating at the terminus to what there is now. We even looked at the possibility of designing an underground bus terminus, but no concrete plans were ever finalised,” he said.
Before the new public transport service was rolled out on 3 July, Arriva and Transport Malta pledged to review the routes every six months. However, as complaints continued to pour in about long journey times, Arriva yesterday said in a statement that a number of changes to the route network will be implemented shortly.
The first of the changes “will be implemented on 31 July, 4 September, 2 October and 30 October.”
Arriva said that discussions with Transport Malta focusing on areas where links were not sufficiently catered for or where journey times have increased, have recently taken place.
Arriva Malta Managing Director Keith Bastow said: “The changes that have been announced will enhance the many new travel options already provided for by the new network.” He added that the additional costs “will be borne by Arriva Malta and will neither be passed onto the travelling public nor Transport Malta.”
Labour leader Joseph Muscat recently criticised the government for wasting €400,000 in consultancy fees after 18 months of planning for the new public transport system, while a few days ago, former Labour Minister Joseph Brincat filed a judicial protest against Transport Malta, saying that the completely new bus route system has created a chaotic situation and has made it impossible to follow the time schedule.
‘A complete failure’
Dr Sammut and Gavin Gulia, the PL’s spokesman for tourism, called a press conference yesterday morning at the Buġibba interchange to highlight that two-and-a-half weeks since the start of the new Arriva bus service, the situation is still as chaotic as ever.
As scores of tourists were waiting for their bus to arrive, an Englishman crept up behind Dr Gulia as the latter was speaking and held up a beach towel with an image of an old Maltese bus, saying that most tourists want the old buses back.
“At least they got from A to B”, he commented.
Dr Gulia said that Malta’s tourism industry relies greatly on repeat tourists, but the new public transport service has been so bad and frustrating that “Malta can forget hopes that current tourists will pay a return visit any time soon”.
He criticised Arriva for not coming up with a back-up plan before hitting the ground running at the height of the tourist season, which is why some tourists have dubbed their recent stay in Malta as “a holiday in hell”.
While the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) is annually spending millions in marketing and advertising in the hope of increasing tourist arrivals, Arriva continues to discriminate between locals and foreigners.
Elaborating, Dr Gulia said that a one-day ticket for a foreigner costs €2.50, while that for a Maltese costs €1.50. Furthermore, foreigners are charged €12 for a weekly ticket, while Maltese are charged €7.30.
“We should either go back to the old bus system, or else the government must shoulder the responsibility for all this chaos and come up with feasible solutions as quickly as possible,” he said.