Nearly 50 days have passed since Arriva buses took to Maltese streets, bringing in foreign drivers shortly afterwards to alleviate a dire shortage and then re-arranging some routes in response to complaints. But most commuters who spoke to The Times still insist the previous service was more accommodating.
“Although the previous yellow buses were not air-conditioned, we could at least open the windows for some air,” said a 61-year old man from Qormi on his way to Valletta at 8 a.m.
“(Authority officials) are probably having breakfast comfortably right now, while we roast in this windowless bus with no air-conditioning, surrounded by stinking fellow passengers,” he added as he wiped beads of sweat as they ran down his forehead.
An Arriva spokesman explained that the company was temporarily using a “small number” of buses from the UK – without air-conditioning – which are to be gradually phased out as refurbished buses from the old system enter service, in line with the contract. The permanent fleet will all have air conditioning.
As the bus halted in front of the Fra Diego house in Ħamrun, some 25 people flocked towards the doors, pushing and shoving. Only a third of them made it aboard.
An elderly man left stranded shouted after the bus: “Ara vera state-of-the-art, għax l-art nibqgħu” (“It really is a state-of-the-art service, because we are left behind”).
A 43-year-old commuter from Żebbuġ, however, said the waiting crowds had thinned since July, when the new service had just been introduced, and the situation was not as chaotic.
Nearly 20 days after its July 3 baptism of fire – when dozens of drivers failed to turn up for work – Arriva announced 27 changes to its routes to be implemented over four months. Some routes are being withdrawn or shortened and others, from the old system, reintroduced.
The spokesman said route updates were going well. Routes 41, 71 and 72 and the X1 timetable have been amended to improve time-keeping. Routes 1,2,3,61,62, 71 and 72 are more frequent while route 63 has replaced the feeder route 112.
Feeder route 124 was amended to link the Three Cities with Marsascala and St Thomas Bay.
However, several towns, including Żejtun, Birkirkara and Mellieħa, still host long queues during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Trips are further lengthened when random inspections take place on board. Buses are sometimes parked in mid-journey while officials check passengers’ tickets. This does not go down well with commuters who also have to sit through the bus driver’s thorough ticket verification of every single passenger as they board the bus.
Buying tickets off buses is sometimes not a simple task either. A 13-year old Sliema resident had to pay the standard day fare paid by non-residents because he was unable to provide a “valid ID card”.
“Are they expecting us to carry our birth certificate around with us?” the teenager asked.
The price of a day ticket is €1.50 for Maltese residents and €2.60 for tourists and those not in possession of a Maltese ID card.
The young man added that the best solution was to buy a pre-paid ticket from a vending machine because “the machine does not ask for your ID card”.
He added his foreign friends had bought a day ticket from a vending machine for €1.50 and “got away with it because bus drivers don’t ask pre-paid ticket holders for verification”.
Asked whether he had applied for a student saver card, he said the card lasted at least 30 days and cost more than €20. “I don’t travel by bus that much, I just catch it every once in a while,” he insisted.
The Arriva spokesman reiterated that it was the ticket holders’ responsibility to ensure they selected the correct ticket from the vending machine and were carrying an ID card which they needed to produce whenever requested by a driver or inspector. Failure to produce the relevant identification may be liable to a €10 penalty.
She said people aged between 11 and 16 or those who provided evidence that they were enrolled in a full-time course lasting at least three months with an educational institution registered with the Education Ministry could apply for a Student Saver Card.
“As the educational institution identification is verified when the application is submitted, it is then not necessary to show the driver anything other than your Saver Card when you board the bus, making it quicker for you and making the on-bus conversation about ticket types unnecessary,” she added.
Other commuters at Valletta said there had been instances when bus drivers did not follow the established routes. These included routes 125, between Blata l-Bajda and University, where drivers would ditch Santa Venera and Birkirkara, and access Mater Dei through Msida.
Two other buses, 31 and 32, sometimes did not stop at the skate park roundabout once in Tal-Qroqq but carried on directly through Birkirkara bypass onto Mater Dei.
The spokesman confirmed that these buses were scheduled to call at the “Qroqq 2” bus stop when in the Buġibba or San Ġwann direction. Depot and control staff were in the meantime reminding drivers about this through the company’s communication channels.
Valletta commuters, waiting in the shade of tents put up at the terminus, said although new links had been set up to places which were previously inaccessible by bus, the interchanges at Mater Dei Hospital and the airport were “a nightmare”.
Arriva said it was “monitoring loading at various interchanges around the islands and will take remedial action where required.”