Mario Mifsud, Ħamrun
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.
Popular Stories
In Discussion
1 Comment
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Peter Camilleri
Jul 21st 2011, 19:57
I do not think one would be justified in describing the old transport system as one which had remained unreformed for many years. Various improvements were made over the years, mainly to the routes and time-tables. The main problems were the general state of decrepitude of most (not all) of the buses, and the total lack of discipline among (again, most, not all) of the drivers.
There can be a number of definitions of what a system would have to comprise to be consided acceptable by 21st century standards. I would say that the main elements should be decent modern buses, routes adapted to the needs of the commuting public, and a good information system.
The new system can be said to generally satisfy the first element, but fails rather miserably on the other two. The current routes have only succeeded in creating inconvenience and, in many cases, hardship. This state of affairs will continue even after the complement of buses and drivers reaches planned proportions, because the faults are in the routes themselves. As regards what can be loosely termed information systems, the names of the bus stops are a disaster, the timetables are completely unrealistic (one wonders whether whoever compiled them has ever ridden on a bus), and the journey planner in the Arriva website is riddled with mistakes, some of them of an elementary nature.
The main task before the Authorities is therefore first to revise the routes, then to adjust the bus stop names, and finally to completely overhaul the information system.