Independent candidate Arnold Cassola on Saturday lamented bad practices which, he says, are affecting public transport.

The Maltese people are daily stuck in traffic and the ten year government "experiment" of cutting down trees, building flyovers and widening roads has been a total flop. The only way forward is investing in a reliable, punctual and round the clock public transport system, he said in a statement.

However, certain bad practices cannot continue. Tens of new electric vehicles have been lying idle unused for the past 2 and a half months in "Il-Foss" in Floriana because there are no charging points to charge them, while commuters waste their time watching full buses pass by. This is totally unacceptable, he said.

Another unacceptable practice, he said, is that while commuters watch a number of '"Not in service" buses pass by empty, these are still being paid for running empty.

In fact, the bus company is paid according to mileage run and not to the number of passengers carried, Cassola said.

This means that when a bus runs late and the driver refuses to do overtime, the bus runs empty, "not in service", but still gets paid for the "not in service" run.

This is not on, Cassola said. The bus company must employ more drivers to ensure that all buses are always in service at all times.

Maltese and resident commuters can no longer be subjected to such treatment, wasting long hours every week, especially during rush hours, just waiting for a bus to pick them up at the stop, he said.