A ceremony was held at the port in Xiamen, China, to hand over 172 King Long buses to Arriva as they prepare for shipping to Malta.

The buses will form part of the new bus services for customers starting on July 4, replacing the old, fume-emitting buses.

Keith Bastow, managing director for Arriva in Malta, was joined by Transport Minister Austin Gatt and a ministry delegation at the event in China held by the bus manufacturers.

When Arriva won the 10-year contract to operate public transport services in Malta, it committed to replacing a large part of the island’s ageing bus fleet to improve passenger comfort and reduce the environmental impact of transport.

Mr Bastow said at the ceremony that as an international transport expert with a fleet of 16,300 buses, Arriva frequently sourced vehicles from across the EU.

King Long will be supplying Arriva with 49 new nine-metre buses and 125 new 12-metre buses. Two of those buses are already in Malta, and are involved in route testing and driver training.

The 12-metre buses will mostly operate on man-line services to and from Valletta. The nine-metre buses will be used on feeder services, exploiting their smaller size but still high relative capacity to penetrate the urban centres of towns and villages.

Dr Gatt said the Chinese export market today provided a continuous “health check” to the production lines of other countries.

“The quality and performance to be offered by these buses is one of the major cornerstones which we expect will lead to a significant increase in patronage over the coming years. This in turn will greatly assist in the achievement of our primary objective: that of a marked modal shift from the use of private cars towards public transport.”

The buses will leave China tomorrow and are due to arrive in Malta at the beginning of May.