Arriva still ironing out free service

Some wheelchair users have been asked to pay the regular bus fare despite Arriva having said that in the interests of passenger safety, disabled people who use a wheelchair can travel for free on all its services.

A number of wheelchair users contacted The Times over the past few days to say they had paid the full fare upon boarding.

Organisations representing disabled people have in the past weeks questioned the lack of lower fares for disabled commuters.

When The Times spoke to Arriva on the situation about 10 days ago, a spokesman had said fares were regulated by Transport Malta and the company was not obliged to offer further concessionary fares. But wheelchair users, he added, did not need to pay the fare.

This is laid down in Arriva Malta’s conditions of carriage available online: “Persons with disabilities that require use of a wheelchair will be allowed to travel free of charge on all services.

This concession is given to enable such passengers to focus on a safe boarding and the positioning and securing of their wheelchair in the space allocated for wheelchairs.”

When contacted again a few days later to explain why wheelchair users were still being charged, an Arriva spokesman said staff had been reminded “to administer the wheelchair rules in accordance with the conditions of carriage”.

Charlie Bonello, a wheelchair user from Mosta, said he had always paid the fare, in both Malta and Gozo.

However, the access there was to buses for people like him had encouraged him to make further use of public transport for everyday errands and not just for leisure.Mr Bonello, 57, has been wheelchair-bound for the past six years and, before the reform of the transport system, had not boarded a bus since 2005. The old buses, he said, were not fully accessible, even though some of them were low-floor. All the new ones were inclusive and the drivers were helpful.

“I was in Gozo last July and decided to give it a go. I was so impressed I used the service to travel to other places, including Sannat and the Gozo General Hospital to visit a friend of mine,” he said.

“Once back in Malta, I took the bus from Mater Dei Hospital to Valletta. I was really satisfied that I could make the trip without needing anyone’s assistance because even though I own a car, I need someone to help.The only thing that bothered me was the extra detours around the villages. It would have been better had the authorities shortened the trips and reintroduced the routes that provided a direct link between villages and Mater Dei,” Mr Bonello said.

Disabled commuters have also called for an audit of the pavement infrastructure, saying the lack of dropped kerbs and the position of bus stop poles obstructed access.

“It’s disappointing to see new poles erected insensitively in the middle of pavements or bus stops blocking access for wheelchair users,” Mr Bonello said, adding these infrastructure problems were common everywhere, including in churches and government buildings.

The Transport Ministry had said that a large number of bus stops and shelters had been installed before the reform and, while it was desirable to make all bus stops accessible, this would require surveys and ­remedial works at over 1,800 ­locations.