Forty new buses will join the fleet of the public transport sector with the aim of improving the service, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Ian Borg said today.

The fleet will increase from 405 to 435 buses, he said, as 10 of the new buses will replace another 10 which will be pulled off the roads.

All the new buses are 12-metre vehicles, and this will increase the carrying capacity of the public transport service as the buses that will be taken off the road were nine-metre vehicles.

The new buses, which will enter service immediately, together cost Malta Public Transport €9 million and come namely to deal with growing problems with regards to capacity, problems which have come about due to record numbers of people using public transport.

Borg in fact noted during his speech that there had been a 61% increase in the amount of passengers carried annually between 2011 and 2018, when a total of 53.4 million people used Malta’s busses; an average of around 150,000 per day as opposed to 90,000 per day in 2011.

Comparing on a yearly basis, he noted that this number has continued to increase this year; there has been a 6.1% increase – equivalent to 1.5 million passengers – in the amount of people carried by busses in the first half of this year when compared to the first half of 2018.

This means, Borg said, that Malta Public Transport’s fleet will be able to carry 4 million more passengers than at present and make 69,000 more journeys.

He said that this will pave the way for more frequency on certain routes such as those in touristic areas but also those localities which have been affected by the economic success of the country, mentioning Fgura and Santa Venera as two examples.

He noted initiatives taken by the government to promote use of public transport in youths – namely that of the provision of free public transport for them – and noted that this not only helps them financially but also helps remove the culture of dependence on parents for transport.

He said that the government would continue to look at the transport situation holistically by continuing to invest in public transport, continuing to address bottlenecks through capital projects such as that of Marsa Junction, and by continuing to build new roads which have been planned for decades such as the Central Link.

Malta Public Transport and Autobus de Leon chairman Felipe Cosmen noted that this hefty investment means that over half of MPT’s fleet of busses are less than four years old, and noted that these new busses were in the top class of European certification for emissions.  He said that the company envisioned adding  more direct and night routes in the future, and noted that people must remember that they can be part of the change and use public transport as an alternative to private cars.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna meanwhile also addressed the press conference, saying that the government had to support the company as it renews its fleet and opens new routes which may not be as profitable but are needed nonetheless.