One of the new bus drivers doing the San Ġwann to Sliema route on Tuesday evening got lost midway.

In a fix, she turned to the passengers who suggested she go through Kirxa Hill towards Balluta Bay. Apparently unaware that the narrow road is out of bounds for heavy vehicles, she took the advice and, sure enough, the bus got wedged between a wall and a parked Rover, which was damaged in the process.

But that wasn’t the only incident of buses getting stuck.

In another case on Wednesday morning, two buses carrying passengers brushed side by side as they were trying to get through St Bartholomew Street in Għargħur. Both buses were scratched but one also had a glass panes shattered.

A spokesman for public transport company Arriva, which is having to deal with a barrage of problems mainly related to the absence from work of 60-odd drivers who were complaining about their rosters, said the company was investigating both incidents.

The spokesman, however, denied they were the result of lack of training, insisting that drivers were given 50,000 hours of training in total, which included route familiarisation.

However, one driver who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity said he had only driven once through the route he had been assigned.

The company spokesman said this could not be possible, adding that all bus drivers had maps in their possession clearly indicating the way to follow on the specific route.

“To be fair to the drivers, these are new routes, new buses and a completely new system. Everything is new. The drivers are doing a fantastic job,” the spokesman said.

Arriva director Piers Marlow said the company was doing its utmost to ensure that holes in the service were plugged, adding that more progress should be made in the coming days.

“Once again, I would like to apologise for the disruption the present driver shortages are causing and thank passengers for their patience and all our drivers for their continued hard work under difficult circumstances at this time. We would like to assure our customers we are working hard behind the scenes to improve the service in the short-term by getting drivers from elsewhere and engaging additional management support,” he said.

Mr Marlow said there were 50 foreign drivers, some of whom were in service and others completing route familiarisation. This, he said, would help to deliver a better quality service.

Besides the locals, the unpredictable public transport system that has rocked Arriva since it took over the service at the beginning of the week has been annoying tourists too.

An American visitor said the “inefficacy” of the transportation system would be the first topic of conversation with anyone who asked her about her holiday in Malta.

She said the service was giving tourists like her “an awful impression”, especially for first-time tourists.

“(We) have not been able to get anywhere for the past three days because of the buses. All buses are either full or are simply not stopping. In Spinola Bay there were easily 100 people waiting at the stop this afternoon. I have seen many buses that are not full but the drivers say they are full and keep going. I have waited up to one and a half hours before giving up,” she said.

A Sliema resident commented about buses passing through Rudolph Street and Mrabat Street in Sliema, which have two bottlenecks, making it difficult for buses to pass.

He quoted the draft noise action plan for the Maltese islands issued in last May, which puts the number of vehicles passing through Rudolph Street at 7.8 million and 8.8 million through Mrabat Street every year.

He said the Arriva buses going through the narrow roads were causing traffic jams with the resultant vehicle traffic air and noise pollution increasing, adversely affecting residents’ health and quality of life.

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