More students bus it to university, Junior College

The use of route buses by university and sixth form students has increased in recent years, according to statistics compiled by the Transport Ministry.

Between October 2004 and June 2005, 122,851 trips were made by students on public transport routes operating between the University of Malta, in Tal-Qroqq, and villages including Birzebbuga, Senglea, Mqabba, Gudja, Dingli, Siggiewi. All the routes passed through Sliema.

In October 2005, the same routes were set to also cater for Junior College students but they stopped passing through Sliema as not many residents were using the service. The number of student trips during that academic year increased to 261,648.

A spokesman for the ministry said 12,441 trips were made in the first week of this month alone.

"Judging by the current trend, we are expecting some 400,000 passengers to make use of public transport routes to and from university this year, an increase of 50 per cent," the spokesman said.

At a public meeting organised by the Christian Democratic Students on campus on Thursday, Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett said discussions were taking place between the Malta Transport Authority, the Public Transport Association - the bus operators - and the University of Malta on how the service could be improved given the parking problems on campus.

The university's proximity to Mater Dei Hospital will make it necessary to arrange routes to service both institutions, Mr Mugliett said, explaining that a regional bus terminus would eventually be set up outside the university's new entrance.

This would form part of a national public transport plan whereby not all buses need to go to Floriana before reaching a particular destination, as is the case with most routes under the present arrangement.

An attempt to introduce car sharing was short-lived, as it was not working properly, it turned out during the discussion.

Since the student population had increased in recent years, the parking problem had become more acute, according to students present at the meeting.