Talks are underway between Transport Malta and Arriva on finding short and eventually long term solutions to the problem created when the government decided to pedestrianise Bisazza Street.

Seven months after signing the contract and just a week after publishing and sending out a booklet with details of all routes to 166,000 households, Arriva discovered that a decision had been taken for Bisazza Street to be pedestrianised.

Arriva Malta Ltd managing director Keith Bastow said that a long-term solution could not be developed overnight as this involved rerouting, analysing and twitching the operation times of several routes, other than the eight that would be directly affected by the Bisazza Street pedestrianisation.

Asked whether this was not the same situation that many buses would have to face if a road was closed for construction work, for example, or any other diversions, he said that in that case, the closure would be for hours or a day, not for ever.

Asked about complaints by possible commuters on the complications of the new routes or longer journey times involved, Mr Bastow said the network routes frequency and start and finish times of the service were specified by Transport Malta prior to the submission of the bid. However, there was the intention to conduct a full review of the service after six months.

Mr Bastow also said that a meeting was planned between Malta Transport, Arriva and the Public Transport Association over the difficulties arising because ATP had to continue providing the service until 12.01 a.m. on July 3 while Arriva needed the 220 bus drivers it was taking on from the old service to attend training sessions on the new buses.

"We are prepared to be flexible with our training schedule," Mr Bastow said.

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