(Updated 7.57 p.m., Adds ministry statement)

The bus service today was better than expected, the Transport Ministry said.

Private coaches chartered from the Unscheduled Bus Service (UBS) operated some of the routes as from today following the withdrawal of 68 bendy buses pending investigation into a series of fires.

The ministry said the service provided by UBS was satisfactory and complaints were few.

Meetings were held this evening between the ministry, Transport Malta and Arriva and between TM, UBS and Arriva to ensure that the best service possible could provided, the ministry said.

Earlier in the day the transport situation in the north seemed to be normal with no queues being reported.

However, some 'confusion' was reported in the south.

Some drivers had problems because they were not familiar with the routes. A commuter said however that this was not unusual even among Arriva's drivers.

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.