They had promised it when Arriva came in but it never materialized. Now it seems it is really coming. By next month, a Malta Public Transport media event was told today, passengers waiting on a bus stop will be able to send an SMS with the number of the bus they are waiting for and at what bus stop they are and will be told how long they have to wait for the bus.

Later on, an App will be developed for smart phones which will enable passengers to find out the nearest bus stops available and detail the arrival time of the next bus, Transport Malta general manager Konrad Pule said this morning.

It will also allow customers to top up their Tallinja card and will include a journey planner.

But that's all for the future. In the meantime, the company was eager to tell its side of the story and the improvements that have been made.

All this improvement is much better than the situation as it was last year, Julio Tironi, International Director, and Konrad Pule, General Manager, said. The company however is still not where it wants to be and will keep improving.

As the only person at the media event who arrived on a bus, I pointed out that there is a divergence between the timings as listed on the website and as exhibited on the bus stop.

Mr Tironi admitted this. The company is still collecting historical data and thus the timings on the website may not correspond either to the actual timings and to the timings as listed on the bus stops. This is a learning process and such divergences will be ironed out in due process.

Also, the timings vary as to the hour of the day and also according to the season.

The company nevertheless believes there has been a huge improvement in the reliability of the service.

Mr Pule outlined the recent changes in the service. A few weeks ago, changes were made to the bus services to Mater Dei Hospital and the university. These changes involved 27 routes and 1200 bus stops.

More changes will come in on 17 April with additional services to San Gwann which is underserved by the existing routes. Further changes come in force in June.

The company tracks everything that happens and seeks to optimise the service. Everything is recorded, from the 200,000 stops made by buses every day to the allocation of buses where there is greater need. Such close attention points out the problem places and times and corrective action is taken.

The summer service

An additional fleet of 33 12-metre buses is being brought in for summer. This is beyond what the contract with the government says.

The bus service is being used far more than in the past. There has been a 7% increase of passengers over last year with 40 million passengers using the service in a year in 2015. Already this year, there has been an 8% increase over last year.

The company is keeping an eye over what happens in the north of Malta where the pressure is greatest.

The company will be getting in a simulator to help in the training of bus drivers especially as regards skills and attitudes.

More supervisors are being engaged: 20 have just started their employment.

New webpage

The company has just launched a new webpage and visits to it have increased three-fold.

There are now timetables attached to every bus stop.

Malta Public Transport has also commissioned completely independent focus groups to tell it how people perceive the service.

The real time panels at some bus stops (there are 93 of them) have been upgraded and the system is being tested. Only the panels themselves come from the Arriva times: otherwise the whole system has had to be redone from scratch.

I pointed out that the complaint system is inadequate because the caller is not asked for his name and there is no feedback.

The company replied the outsourced call centre gets 18,000 calls a month and most ask about times of buses. The complaints range some 40 a day and they are followed through. In July 2015, the call centre used to get some 3,000 calls a day: these are now down to less than 500 a day.

From its replies, it is clear the company believes more in making people independent of the need to ask for information by accessing the already available information on the website (for now) and on the Apps in the coming future.

It is also technically feasible for the company to send out warnings to people on their mobiles warning, for instance to users who register a particular route, to tell them, for instance, there is flooding in Birkirkara, or huge delays on the Birkirkara Bypass, as happened last week, so that people understand the reason for the delays in the service.

The need for personal feedback especially in the case of complaints still remains, I think.

Largest fleet

• 143 new buses plus 33 on temporary use
• All eco-friendly - one of the most eco-friendly fleets in Europe; and also the youngest
• Specifically designed for Malta's roads
• All buses are low-floor

The employees

• 1300 employees
• 1100 drivers, of who 500 were recruited in the past 12 months
• 80% are Maltese
• 10% are women
• They get 8 weeks of training in Malta, Spain and Turkey

The bus tickets

• There has been a significant improvement in the time to issue a ticket
• 55% of the population have a bus card
• 180,000 cards have been used more than once
• Free card registration
• This is a €1 million investment
• The elderly were thought to be challenged by the new technology. But in fact 70% of the elderly have a bus card.

The network

• Network implementation and expansion was delayed for six months by the problems with the unions
• Buses travel 30m km per year
• 5,200 trips per day
• 2,000 bus stops

Safety

• CCTV on all buses
• All necessary safety equipment on all buses
• Regular inspections
• Maintenance every 35 days
• The company used to have 20-30 buses out of action every day.
• The CCTV on all buses can be accessed at any time by central office.