The Transport Ministry has welcomed the increase in bus passenger numbers revealed by Arriva this afternoon.

The bus service operator announced at a press conference that the number of commuters was up by 21% in August compared to the same month last year.

Passengers in Malta made 3,400,000 trips on the buses in August. There were another 240,000 commuters in Gozo. In Gozo, Arriva carried in a month what the previous operator carried in six months.

“The ministry considers these results as a vote of confidence by the people and tourists in the new bus service,” the ministry said.

It added that although not everybody could be satisfied all the time, and more lessons remained to be learnt, it was clear that the new public transport service was attractive, comfortable and could potentially bring about a real change in the way the people travelled in Malta.

The ministry said that a very small  part of the difference in passenger numbers between the new service and the old could stem from ‘fraud’ by drivers in the old service (who under-declared numbers)

However most of the improvement in the new service stemmed from government insistence that the new bus service should operate for longer hours, it should be more frequent, and it should operate across a wider route network. Indeed, the new network was 45% wider than the one it replaced.

The government had also insisted that there should be direct links between the airport, tourist zones and attractions, and it also insisted on a  frequent and regular service in Gozo.

The increase in passenger numbers came about more quickly than expected- Ministry

The changes, the ministry said, were radical, and many people would need time to get used to them, even if everything worked perfectly. But there would not have been real change had the routes and operations not been reformed. Simply replacing the buses and driver uniforms would not have brought new passengers to the buses.

The ministry regretted that the Labour Party ‘and its satellites’ had exploited the difficulties which the bus service had encountered.   

The routes, it said, would continue to be improved and Transport Malta would ensure that the operator delivered on contractual obligations.

The ministry said passenger growth had been faster than expected, and it hoped this increase would be sustained, even though, it said, such an increase placed more pressures on the service.