September 11 is Arriva’s self-imposed deadline to provide a fully-fledged service “that is expected of us”, managing director in Malta Keith Bastow said yesterday.

The date, perhaps an unfortunate one in bringing to mind the day the New York’s Twin Towers were bombed in 2001, is the target laid down in Arriva’s detailed action plan to step up its service.

By that date, the company hopes to have recruited and trained 240 new local drivers, a full complement of staff to “provide a service we want and are expected to provide”.

Deep problems have persisted since Arriva took over operations on July 3, mainly due to the fact that about 180 bus drivers failed to turn up for work from the very first day of service. Many commuters have also complained bitterly about the new routes, the long waiting times and trips, and the lack of air conditioning on some buses.

Mr Bastow confirmed that 120 drivers who were previously employed with the Public Transport Association had their contract terminated after they failed to show up for work. The exceptions were drivers who may have been sick or abroad, or who had other particular reasons.

Arriva presently employs 81 drivers who used to drive the old, yellow buses.

To provide a contingency service, over the past weeks Arriva has brought over 80 drivers from the UK. These will increase to 100 by the end of this week, he said.

He said in the past few days Arriva had also beefed up its training capacity by increasing the number of driving instructors to train the British and new drivers.

“We are still a long way from where we need to be,” he said, describing as “significant” the fact Arriva has been registering “sustainable, noticeable progress”.

The company will also be operating new or amended routes as outlined in a programme announced last week after consultations with Transport Malta.

Replying to questions on the tiered fares for residents and non-residents, Mr Bastow said Maltese had to give proof of residence if they wanted to benefit from special rates.

This problem, he said, would be resolved once all people got used to off-board purchase of tickets from the machines.He also insisted that with regard to tattoos, standards were not different for the UK drivers. Arriva Malta did not want drivers to have visible tattoos but some of the drivers had been brought over to Malta at very short notice.

Mr Bastow defended Arriva’s choice to deploy articulated (bendy) buses on Maltese roads, despite reports of breakdowns, instances where these were stuck or overheated.

“We are 100 per cent certain that the mixed fleet is the correct one,” he said, adding this mix was “effective”.

On the overheating of a number of buses, he said this was “not an endemic problem” and the root cause had been identified by Maltese, UK and Chinese King Long engineers and had been rectified.

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