Emanuel Delia, head of the Transport Ministry’s secretariat, has pointed to some of the bus routes which are set for review as commuters complain about long journey times on the buses.
Speaking to The Times, Mr Delia said that “some things could immediately be seen not to be working properly”. The ministry, he said, was aiming to resolve these issues “in the shortest possible term”.
While the ministry was taking into account commuters’ complaints, Mr Delia stressed that even if the schedules were working perfectly – “and as we all know, they are not” – it was too early to judge whether a line was being adequately supplied, if a route should be redesigned, or if a new route had enough custom to justify its continuation.
Originally, the plan was to review the routes every within six months - in October and April - but the ministry hoped to implement these changes by the time new driver shifts for next month were rolled out.
Among those being reassessed are routes 81 and 82, from Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa to Valletta, which could be shortened by dropping the link through the Marsa park-and-ride.
A minor adjustment to the X4 route could retain the travelling options to these towns that Marsa offers residents while giving Valletta-bound travellers a faster way in.
The ministry is also looking to abolish the Buġibba turnaround from route 41, since route 31 already connects Mosta to Buġibba directly, while route 11 connects Ċirkewwa and Mellieħa to Buġibba. This would shorten Valletta-bound journey times from the north without reducing travelling options.
Also slated for possible removal is the airport stop on routes 71 and 72 that would shorten the journey to Valletta, while people travelling from Qrendi and Żurrieq could use lines 117 and 118 to access the airport interchange.
“There are other improvements we are looking into but these will take a little longer to roll out and in any case reflect less significant complaints from travellers,” Mr Delia said.
“The ministry, Transport Malta and Arriva believe in this network though of course we are open to change it and get suggestions on how to improve it. This (network) was not some bright spark in some individual’s mind.”
He said the routes were planned by Halcrow and Transport Malta and passed following direct consultation with local councils and the public, with all routes on maps published several months before the tender for the services – which Arriva eventually won – was even issued.
“There was never the claim it would be perfect. It does claim, however, to offer new travelling options that never existed before and which will take some time for people to find,” he said.
He suggested, for example, that people could reach Valletta and Mater Dei Hospital faster if they chose “other options that are perhaps counter-intuitive”.
“We know of people who spend a lot of time travelling on route 11 from Ċirkewwa to Valletta when a much faster option is using the X1 from Ċirkewwa and interchanging at Mater Dei where there are rapid and frequent connections to Valletta,” he pointed out.
“I know of people from Żurrieq who interchanged in Valletta to go to Ċirkewwa (a trip that took them ages to complete) when interchanging at the airport would have cut their journey time many times over.
“Of course in the context where the service, even if much more stable than its start, is nowhere near as frequent as it should be, people have spent a long time waiting while trying these connections and many have understandably taken what they consider as the safest bet and travelled on to Valletta. That, after all, is the way they know,” he added.
Mr Delia assured that as services stabilised, and drivers and frequencies increased, buses that were running empty should start relieving some of the Valletta-bound buses that were carrying people who were only there because their destination was to interchange at Valletta.
Transport Malta and Arriva, he added, would extend the information campaign to raise awareness about such connections, however, the main priority was to get the network running on the planned frequency and capacity.
Arriva had to roll out more drivers and refine other things bogging down the operation such as ticketing on buses, which was taking too much time, and electronic destination boards which were switched off and did not help in pointing people to destinations on offer.
Valletta-bound and loyal public transport passengers would be kept in mind but the reform was meant to attract people travelling by car, “and the buses you note running empty today are an invitation to new passengers to try out the many new options out there”.