‘We are fed up of apologies’

As the 12th day of service rolled on for Arriva Malta, staffing difficulties caused more delays and disruption, as some 10 drivers called in sick while a few others reported late.

“This caused some disruption to services at the very start of the day but by 8 a.m. we had recovered, such that virtually all services were operating,” a spokesman for the company said.

“We did not have any completely unannounced no-shows of the sort that caused us problems last week,” he added.

Although the numbers yesterday were quite small, the shortage in human resources did create difficulties for the service. He said Arriva tried to minimise the impact by widening frequency gaps on the least busy routes to shift drivers onto the busier trips.

In the meantime, local councils voiced their electorates’ concerns. One of them was Żejtun, which complained that route 81, departing from Marsaxlokk, was picking up a lot of passengers from the Bir id-Deheb interchange, leaving no free space for Żejtun commuters.

It added that the Żejtun bus stop was situated at the periphery, out of reach of most passengers. The solution, the council said, was the old direct route from Żejtun to Valletta.

The absence of a direct link with Mater Dei was also bearing down heavily on the elderly, it said.

It also complained that the pelican lights next to the interchange, on Tal-Barrani Street, had been illegally removed, as there had not been any request for their removal in the application to carry out works.

The drone of “give us our old routes back” has become more incessant. People at the Valletta bus terminus told The Times they had never complained about the old bus routes and all they wanted was a regular, frequent service.

A woman from Mellieħa said she had waited for nearly two hours on a bus stop before managing to squeeze herself onto an aquamarine Arriva bus. “Only one other bus passed by. That was full up and the driver could not let anyone else board the bus,” she said.

Bus stops in Ħamrun and Blata l-Bajda saw crowds of around 20 people waiting during the morning peak hours.

Frustration turned to anger. “We are fed up with apologies from Arriva and Transport Malta,” one commuter from Żebbug said, one and a half hours after he had left home for Valletta.

“I think that it’s time the authorities shouldered responsibility and started acting.”

Complaints have spread over to the sister island of Gozo, where people reported similar traffic accidents to those in narrow streets in Sliema and Għargħur. Two buses were involved in collisions with passing traffic in Marsalforn and Xlendi. Joseph Portelli, 29, from Qala took the ferry to Ċirkewwa, which anchored at around 7 a.m. but he only reached Sliema after 10 a.m.

The journey back home was a “nightmare Four full-up buses passed by between 6.30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Reaching Ċirkewwa after “a never-ending journey through numerous towns” at 11 p.m., with the air-conditioning switched off, commuters had to take the midnight ferry back to Gozo. One of the passengers passed out during the bus journey. The average journey from Ċirkewwa to Sliema would not have taken more than 45 minutes on the previous route.

Carrying a three-month old baby, Mr Portelli and his wife then had to walk home to Qala as the bus service was no longer in operation.

Several Gozitans have complained that Għajnsielem and Xewkija are inaccessible on the new system.

Meanwhile, the Pembroke local council said it was disappointed that no traffic management and traffic environmental impact assessment for Normandija Street and the surroundings had been carried out, in relation to works carried out on the park-and-ride.

According to an answer to a parliamentary question, there was no need for these assessments as the site already served as an open car park. The council said, however, that the site was no longer going to be accessible through Sant Andrija Road but would through Normandija Street. It filed a judicial protest. The Kappara Administrative Committee (KAC) said it could not have been involved in the consultation process held with local councils since 2009 because it came into being in July last year.

Earlier this week the Transport Ministry noted that the routes, which were first drafted by Halcrow Group consultants in November 2008, were published in December of that year during a national conference marking the first phase of the consultation process. The conference was open to all, including councils.

In April 2009 a meeting for the executive secretaries of the councils was held and they were handed electronic plans of the routes and the bus stops.

They were asked to evaluate the proposals with their councils and provide feedback.

KAC is now waiting for feedback to representations it made over the structure of the new routes.