New bus route to serve cruise passengers

A new bus route will start servicing the cruise terminal at the Valletta Waterfront on November 1, three years after a proposed shuttle service between Pinto Wharf and Valletta, was shot down by white taxi drivers.

Ben Stuart, Malta Cruise Network coordinator, said the introduction of this route took a lot of hard work and lengthy talks with the White Taxi Licensed Amalgamated.

It also involved the committed collaboration of the Malta Transport Authority (ADT), the Public Transport Association and Viset Malta plc.

"Malta Cruise Network worked to bring everybody together and we had meetings with the white taxis' association to develop a better transport service for the numerous cruise liner passengers. They were initially reluctant, but eventually understood the situation," he said.

Mr Stuart explained that more often than not the taxis were not coping with the number of passengers disembarking from the cruise liners.

At any one time there were 80 to 100 taxis waiting in the area and on average they took two people up to Valletta in a 10-minute round trip.

"This means that the taxis service about 1,000 people in an hour. However, very often there is double the number of passengers they can handle in the space of an hour, plus you have to consider that many passengers opt to walk up," he added.

In October 2003, 160 drivers of white taxis submitted a petition to MPs insisting that the shuttle service being proposed by the ADT and Viset would threaten their livelihood - the service never materialised.

However, after being presented with all these arguments, the white taxi drivers seemed to be mollified. The only thing they refused to accept was the proposal for the bus to actually park and wait for passengers.

"Nobody had a problem with this and it was accepted that the bus will operate a normal bus route," he said.

The White Taxi Licensed Amalgamated was absent during yesterday's press tour on the bus route. When contacted its chief executive Alfred Pace said he preferred not to comment for the time being.

The introduction of Bus 198 marks a significant step in providing a fluid system to transport people in and out of the area and will be instrumental in reducing congestion.

ADT public transport director Joe Caruana said it had not made sense to have all the public transport operators - coaches, horse-drawn carriages and taxis - servicing the port, without having a bus.

"With the increased number of cruise liners, nobody was coping well and tourists were not getting an adequate service," he said.

Now, liner passengers have ample transport options to choose from and instead of embarking on a 25-minute walk to Castille, they also have a choice of a 15-minute bus ride from the Waterfront to Valletta.

The bus route will operate from Valletta to Floriana, passing through the Park and Ride area, moving down to the Sea Malta/Maritime Authority building area, on to the Waterfront and the Great Siege Road, before reaching the Valletta terminus.

The fare will be €1 for a return trip or 40c. One way will cost 20c. The idea is that the route will initially operate two buses every half an hour on Monday to Fridays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

However, ATP president Victor Spiteri said they will be monitoring the schedule, establishing the flow of people and expanding the service accordingly.