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Gatt to ‘hound’ Arriva, understands frustration

“While I am still baffled why I should be blamed because a bus is late or because Arriva fails to respond to customer queries, I fully understand the frustration of Ms (Nicola) Abela Garrett with Arriva,” Transport Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

“While I am still baffled why I should be blamed because a bus is late or because Arriva fails to respond to customer queries, I fully understand the frustration of Ms (Nicola) Abela Garrett with Arriva,” Transport Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Transport Minister Austin Gatt yesterday said he would “continue hounding” Arriva until it provided the bus service expected of it, in response to a university student who heckled him at a press conference the previous day.

“While I am still baffled why I should be blamed because a bus is late or because Arriva fails to respond to customer queries, I fully understand the frustration of Ms (Nicola) Abela Garrett with Arriva,” Dr Gatt said.

The comments, made in a statement released yesterday, followed an outburst by Ms Abela Garrett at a press conference against the “ridiculous” bus service, repeatedly telling Dr Gatt he should be “ashamed” of himself. She said it had taken her two hours to reach Naxxar from Attard by bus, adding that students were missing lectures because of the poor service.

Dr Gatt took the incident in his stride. “I was a student once and I expect nothing less from a student but to speak her mind and publicly express her protests without fear. I can assure her there is absolutely no animosity and I consider the case closed.”

He did point out, however, that he was not addressing her when he was overheard saying “no problem”. Ms Abela Garett had interpreted this as a condescending response and retorted with some colourful language which she later said she regretted.

The words “no problem”, Dr Gatt said, were addressed to people surrounding him in an attempt to make sure they did not intervene to try to stop the student.

In an open letter Ms Abela Garrett sent to the student online newspaper insiteronline.com she publicly apologised for her “bad language” directed towards Minister Gatt: “My behaviour was uncalled for and I can assure you, I am in no way a gutter girl.”

However, she went on to demand an apology from the Minister. “Now that I have apologised publicly, through this article, to Mr Austin Gatt, I would like him to apologise to the Maltese bus commuters for his disastrous attempt to reform the bus system and his selfish attitude towards the 130 complaints Arriva and TM have been receiving daily.”

Towards the end of the letter she said she would not apologise for speaking her mind, “brash as it may have come across”. She said all she wanted was “someone to sort out the chaos within the system”.

Meanwhile, the university pointed out yesterday that a man who, in footage aired on One News, was apparently asking Ms Abela Garrett for her details after the incident, was not one of its officials.

In her open letter Ms Abela Garrett referred to this “complete stranger” who “forced” her to give her name and told her off for insulting the minister.

A spokesman for the Transport Ministry said neither the Minister nor anyone at the ministry enquired about Ms Abela Garrett’s identity or complained with her: “Ms Abela Garrett was perfectly within her rights to speak to the Minister in a public place and her identity was frankly irrelevant to us.”

Her apology yesterday bred a string of critical comments, as bloggers pointed out that the student had also insulted Minister Gatt on her Facebook wall on September 8.

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Ms Francesca Abela

Oct 11th 2011, 21:51

400,000 Euros down the drain, commissions in someone's pockets, 6 million Euros subsidy to Arriva, Unsuitable buses because Tumas Group which is a shareholder in Arriva Malta is the agent of King Long, it goes on and on but the consumer is still not being served! Hmmm now who said 'The consumer is king' LOL. here in Malta it's the Minister who is king with his Jag and Driver whilst ordinary people have to suffer the consequences of wrong decisions.

Joe Fenech

Oct 15th 2011, 21:34

And Malta took the bendy buses that the Brits scrapped! Has Malta been a democracy, Austin Gatt would have resigned months ago!

ninu gale

Oct 10th 2011, 14:22

I agree with you 100 per cent. we have had enough of complaining and want the Bus 91 to Valletta from Siberia area near Cerviola, Jerma and San Tumas areas.

Reuben Scicluna

Oct 8th 2011, 17:01

of course, in your day they would have beaten you to within half an inch of your life for something like that ... ah the Golden Years

cettina portelli

Oct 7th 2011, 19:46

i can well understand how frustrating this business of buses arriving at the same time after a HUGE long wait....yesterday at 0830am i counted SIXTY THREE people waiting at the riche bus stop in bormla and some of them had been waiting for more than an hour.
the worst of it was that after such a long wait, three buses turned up at the same time!
which of course means that for the next batch of people waiting for a bus its going to be a very long wait...AGAIN!
ITS SO UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!

Ms Francesca Abela

Oct 9th 2011, 19:29

The big mistake made by Transport Malta in this case is that they signed the contract upfront instead of after a 3 month trial period, another big error was in changing all the routes overnight and also in removing some routes like Marsascala Siberia area which had served residents very well, residents in some areas had never complained about the routes but about the drivers and buses. What use is a polite driver and an Air conditiioned bus every 10 mins if you do not have access to the service?? The mind boggles if the TM thinks that Marsascala residents are happy with the routing of bus no 91 to Valletta

Gillian Snook

Oct 7th 2011, 16:53

I echo your sentiment. The most apt comment regarding Minister Gatt's statement -
it left me flabbergasted.

James Camilleri

Oct 8th 2011, 00:11

He is baffled maybe because he has just woken up?

Joe Busuttil

Oct 7th 2011, 13:45

Thousands were spent for the ceremony of the launching the Arriva service (service? What service?) and the minister ,in a solemn tone announced that 'zmien il-buzullotti spicca.' Well ,if he wanted to impress upon us that he was responsible for the improvement of the transport system,now he must not be surprised if we are blaming him (and his right hand man) for the everyday 'buzullotti' committed by the new bus service. The buck (or Euro in our case) stops at your desk,APG.

Charmaine Marmara'

Oct 7th 2011, 11:40

vojt

victor bonello

Oct 7th 2011, 12:37

why so cynical just because someone speaks out his ideas..is this the mentality of a Police state maybe?

Mr Joseph Calleja

Oct 7th 2011, 16:19

Mr Vella, as always a very ridiculous observation. Give the girl some credit. Don't you wish you had the guts and the stamina to do something like that? Probably not. And why the PL and not the PN? Arrogance runs in both parties, Why the discrimination?

J. Falzon

Oct 7th 2011, 17:54

kull ma ghamlet dil-persuna li esprimit dak kollha li qed nhosu u li kulhadh xtaq jesprimi li kieku kellu c-cans. Kumment vojt bhal tieghek juri kemm ma tafx x'qieghed jigri go dal pajjiz specjalment fej jidhlu l-Arriva Malta.

Michael Lloyd

Oct 7th 2011, 11:30

They are the ways of the younger generation, Mr Sciberras. Customer support, if reports in this journal are true, appears not to work. Three months have elapsed since the new system was imposed on Malta and during those three months for many people things have not improved one jot. If you wish to discuss amateurism, then I suggest you might want to start with Halcrow, TM and Arriva, who to date do not seem to have much idea of professionalism, do they? Meanwhile the poor public, who suffer as a result of their collective incompetence, are supposed to do - well, what, exactly?

Mr Tony Gatt

Oct 7th 2011, 12:06

Spot on. Every twit wants to twitter these days.

victor bonello

Oct 7th 2011, 12:40

it has been reported in this article that Arriva and TM recieve 130 complaints a day on average.. what has been done?
like always, the general public is ignored, this goes for all Govt bodies..

Mr Joseph Calleja

Oct 7th 2011, 14:42

Welcome to the 21st century.

Christian Sciberras

Oct 17th 2011, 22:06

Michael Lloyd - That doesn't make them any less infantile. As an example, the disbandment of the Gozitan Red Cross branch thanks to a couple of insults on Facebook. If that isn't immature, I don't know what is.

Mr joseph saliba

Oct 7th 2011, 10:32

...leaving no stone unturned to unearth even one vote....

cettina portelli

Oct 7th 2011, 20:18

sorry to rain on your parade but this system CANNOT run like clockwork.
the times given for a bus to arrive from one bus stop to another are impossible to adhere to.
i live in the three cities and on the route map it says from kalkara - which is an adjoining village - to bormla it takes ZERO minutes!

i rest my case.

James Camilleri

Oct 8th 2011, 00:21

Ms Graham, the problems you mentioned existed before Arriva arrived (lol). So blaming the shoody service being currently offered becuase of these problems is just a lame excuse.

A Saliba

Oct 8th 2011, 16:15

Totally agree, the majority of the Maltese people want this.

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