London mayor Boris Johnson aimed his wit at Malta’s public transport yesterday, boasting that “jack-knifed diplodocus” bendy buses were now “clogging up the streets of Malta”.

Speaking at the British Conservative Party conference in Birmingham yesterday, Mr Johnson cited the removal of the much-maligned long buses – one of his electoral promises – as one of his mayorship’s successes.

But a Transport Ministry spokeswoman quickly retorted that Maltese passengers “appreciate the comfort and sheer capacity of articulated buses”. Such buses could be found in most European cities, she added.

Articulated buses could comfortably carry up to four buses’ worth of passengers, the spokeswoman argued. “By our mathematics, that is considerably less congestion, rather than more.”

London’s streets are now filled with bespoke double-decker, hybrid engine buses which Mr Johnson yesterday boasted were “the cleanest in Europe”, after Londoners complained vociferously about the bendy buses.

The British capital’s new buses have, however, also faced criticism from limited-mobility commuters.

Many of the bendy buses they replaced ended up in Malta when bus company Arriva won a contract to be the country’s national bus service.

There are approximately 66 of the unwieldy but space-efficient vehicles among Arriva’s local fleet of buses, each 18 metres long and just within the EU-established 2.55 metre width limit.

The company had previously told The Times that their inclusion in the local fleet was one of Transport Malta’s service requirements.

They have been broadly unpopular ever since, at least with drivers. Some have written in or sent photos of buses holding up traffic as they manoeuvre through the tight corners endemic to Maltese roads.

Others, however, consider their huge capacity to be a godsend, as it means commuters are rarely left stranded as buses full to bursting file past.

Back in 2007, a spokesman from the now-defunct Public Transport Association had warned that bendy buses were too big for Maltese roads. Local buses, he had said, needed to be smaller rather than bigger.

The buses had a rough ride from day one, with one driver finding himself stuck by Mater Dei Hospital on Arriva’s first day of service. Other incidents, including a hit-and-run case between a bendy bus and a cyclist, soon followed.

Officials point out that there is no evidence of articulated buses being involved in any more traffic accidents than usual and that their capacity means they can carry several busloads of passengers in one go.

Mr Johnson’s remarks are not the first time Malta’s decision to import London’s bendy buses has made UK headlines.

Last December, an article in daily newspaper The Guardian noted that “Malta is to the bendy bus what Scotland is to the panda. The conditions are the exact opposite of what it requires, but they’ve spent thousands trying to make it work anyway.”

Mr Johnson’s press office had not yet replied to questions by the time of writing, while both Transport Malta and Arriva did not reply to an invitation to comment on the mayor’s remarks.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.