Former Justice Minister Joe Brincat this morning filed a judicial protest against Transport Malta over the bus service.

“This is so unreasonable that no reasonable person could have thought it out,” he said in his protest.

Dr Brincat said that he was filing his protest as a citizen who, for the past two years, had been using the transport service to go to work in court and return home.

The previous routes and times had made it possible for one to calculate when to leave home to find a bus to travel.

But with the new system introduced by Transport Malta some days ago, chaos had been created and it had become impossible for public transport users to observe a schedule.

Maltese legislation, he said, obliged public transport to leave termini on time.

He pointed out that the whole country was suffering because of the new schedule and trips which previously took less than an hour had lengthened by up to three times.

A clear example was that of Gozitans who worked in Malta who were having to spend six hours on the bus daily if they used public transport to go to work and return home.

Dr Brincat said that he and his family used to use service to go to Gozo and back. The old route was 45 minutes and was coordinated with the ship’s departure times.

The route was now 150 minutes or longer and one had to be lucky to arrive close to a ship’s departure time.

This was so unreasonable that no reasonable person would have thought it out, he said.

The inadequacy of the new schedule was an administrative decision which, under an excuse or another, Transport Malta never accepted responsibility for.

It tried to make several excuses, including to blame drivers who left Arriva, rather than assume responsibility.

He noted that it was impossible for the schedule to be operated unless it was changed.

He asked for the removal of the new schedule, which the new transport service provider Arriva was having to follow, since it was manifestly clear that it had been based on irrelevant considerations and was not aimed for people to arrive at their destinations in the shortest time possible.

He is holding Transport Malta responsible.

In a comment to journalists, Dr Brincat pointed out that Arriva was not to blame for the fiasco.

He called on disgruntled commuters to contact him on brincat.routes@gmail.com , including their ID card  number and address and tell him about their experience.

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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110628/local/the-new-bus-service-have-your-say.372861