Switch the buses off!

Public transport provider Arriva has adopted a procedure of not leaving bus engines running idle for more than four minutes.

Answering a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea, Transport Minister Austin Gatt said some 80 per cent of buses had a system that automatically switched off bus engines after four minutes.

In reply to another parliamentary question by Anthony Agius Decelis (PL), the minister said Arriva had bought 118 low-floor buses which formed part of the old bus service.

Those which are being used on the routes have been or are in the process of being retrofitted according to current requirements while the rest are being used for training. He explained that there had been 508 buses in the old bus service.

One low-floor bus was retained by Transport Malta for training, one was scrapped, two were retained by their original owners, eight were bought by government entities and one was transferred to the Malta Red Cross.

Of the remaining old buses, three were kept by their owners for use as vintage vehicles, 73 were kept by their owners for private use, 127 were transferred to Heritage Malta, 164 were scrapped while seven had been kept by their original owners for legal reasons.

The 78 old buses in Gozo were retained by their owners for unscheduled work.