Walk on the wild side of pedestrianisation

Arriva Malta, the new public transport operator, can opt to stick to its guns about Bisazza Street, in Sliema, at its own peril. If any of its top brass were present at the newly-opened pedestrianised zone over the past days they would have realised it will be a PR disaster to keep insisting buses will drive through come July 3.

Arriva will already have a lot on its plate when it launches its new service. It must get it right the first time because commuters have had more than enough of being promised a better bus service, forking out higher fares but then ending up with the same lousy deal and arrogant drivers. Being itself seen to be insensitive to people’s wishes with regard to the Bisazza Street pedestrianisation project can only be a bad omen.

There are other options open to it and Arriva does not need to wait for six months, as its managing director, Keith Bastow implied last week, to see “what changes are possible for the future” in the case of the eight routes planned to pass through Bisazza Street.

It was also very worrying to hear him say that the company had finalised an intelligent information system that was so very intricate that changing the route not to go through Bisazza Street would throw such system out of the window.

What would happen if urgent repair works are needed and the road has to be closed to traffic? Or if an activity of some sort is held there and the road is blocked? And what would buses do in case of an accident that would not make it possible for traffic to go through?

That is one side of the Bisazza Street pedestrianisation story. The other side involves the government. Here it seems like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing or, worse, one hand not caring what the other is planning.

The Prime Minister has on various occasions gone on record saying his government wanted to restore to the people as many parts of the country as possible.

He speaks of open spaces, of lungs in built-up areas and of pedestrianised zones. And a good degree of success there has been.

Yet, here we have a case where, on the one hand, the government was working on a project to embellish and pedestrianise one of the busiest roads in Malta at a cost of €750,000 in taxpayers’ money and, on the other hand, Transport Malta was signing a contract with Arriva to have buses go through it.

The end result is as ridiculous as it is tragic. And the pity is that the government still looks weak and undecided about the matter. Just a few days ago, an official statement tried to please everybody. The government insisted the road would be fully pedestrianised but added that the decision was taken after the agreement with Arriva was signed. (It does not say much for long-term planning!) So, until adjustments to other routes were made, it would be necessary for buses to go through Bisazza Street temporarily and “for a very brief period of time”.

There is only one way out of this: Bisazza Street must remain fully pedestrianised, come what may. There is enough time for Arriva to make the changes necessary. What the people – its new clients – expect from it is some goodwill.