New reform of bus routes is needed (2)

There are many facets to the public transport reform and understandably such a reform cannot overnight bring a system which had remained unreformed for many years to one acceptable by 21st century standards.

However the commuter – who was not consulted at all in this reform – is now being made to face all the difficulties of the transition. This goes against the principle of fairness! And so the authorities should intervene.

For a start, the routes need to be revised urgently so that the travelling time expended by the commuter would not be excessively longer than under the old system. A mechanism whereby routes are sanctioned with public participation should also be introduced.

Understandably, this is ex­pected to take many weeks to complete, so Transport Malta should immediately suspend those routes that they consider are causing excessive hardship to the commuter and in those instances reintroduce the old route.