Half the buses servicing routes which end in Zurrieq and Qrendi will soon sport new livery promoting the routes.

The livery has the tagline ‘Your 70s’ - the routes covered being 71, 72 and 73, and a side sticker with the main route destinations.

Seven out of the 15 buses on these routes will be branded.

The last time route buses in Malta were branded was in the 1970s when the buses were coloured according to the route they served.

 According to Arriva commercial director Fabien Courtellemont this was to provide Arriva with the optimal mix between branding and flexibility.

The branding exercise follows changes Arriva made to the routes following threats by Transport Malta a few weeks ago.

TM had warned it would step in to provide the service if Arriva did not improve service frequency and timings.

Mr Courtellemont said that the plan was for the livery exercise to be extended to other routes and the company hoped to have various routes branded by the beginning of summer.

Zurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia said that Arriva had finally heard the council’s pleas for more frequently services routes and although it was too early to pass definite judgement it appeared that complaints had subsided.