Since its inception, the public transport service in Malta has fallen short of people’s expectations. Transport Minister Joe Mizzi wants to change this for the better, but tells Kurt Sansone that improvements will come at a cost to taxpayers.

Bendy buses are still off the roads. What is the current state of play?

I still have no certification in hand that tells me they are safe, if they are safe. While it is important that passengers, bus drivers and pedestrians are safe, I want to ensure that the public transport service is maintained. But my hands are tied by the contract because it stipulates in black and white that Arriva can use bendy buses to run their service.

I took the necessary precautions by suspending bendy buses until they are inspected and they will remain so until I am assured they are safe and adjustments made to render them so.

Whatever happens though, we have made it clear with Arriva that if bendy buses return to the roads they should be phased out.

Why are you using the words “if they are safe”?

Because I am not yet convinced they are safe.

But do you believe bendy buses have an intrinsic mechanical defect?

I don’t know, but based on the [technical] report the ministry passed on to Arriva I expect to have an expert convince us these buses are safe.

But I reiterate that irrespective of how safe they are and if they get back into service... the Transport Malta chairman and I made it clear that they should be phased out.

Did the technical report you had commissioned to investigate the three bendy bus fires indicate what the problem is?

The report indicated a lot of shortcomings. If experts say they can remedy these and certify them to be safe it is one thing, but if they do not certify them safe it is another thing altogether. This is why we have to wait.

Why did you not publish the technical report?

I was advised not to publish because of security concerns. The report contains certain [technical] information that can be used by some to cause problems. There is also a magisterial inquiry under way into the three fire incidents.

Arriva contends that at least one of the cases was arson.

I am not convinced after seeing the report.

You fear that by publishing the report someone may get clear ideas of how to sabotage a bendy bus. Maybe somebody has already learnt how to do that.

There are technical explanations in the report on cause and effect. It lists various things that can be done and the impact this will have on how the bus works. The advice I have is not to publish the report.

Nobody else apart from you can pass judgement on this report because it is not public. Does the report worry you?

Yes, it worried me so much that I insisted bendy buses remain suspended from service. To dispel my concerns I have to have official certification that the vehicles are safe to carry passengers and be on the road.

To this day I do not have that guarantee and I am not prepared to shoulder responsibility for allowing bendy buses on the road before I have it.

Is it a manufacturing problem or one linked to technical changes done to the buses along the years?

I am not a technical person, but there were some alterations made to the vehicles such as the introduction of air-conditioning and the upgrading of engines to Euro 5 standard.

Now, it is the experts who have to determine whether these changes were the cause of the problems and if so whether they can be remedied. But I want this certified officially.

Is Arriva working on this?

Yes. They got their own experts and others from a foreign certification entity. When they produce all the necessary documents we will sit down again and analyse the result.

It is important to remember Arriva is contractually allowed to use bendy buses and when the contract was revised by the previous administration, the company was offered the possibility of increasing the number of bendy buses on our roads.

Does Arriva agree with the Government’s argument that bendy buses should be phased out?

In principle Arriva agrees, but there is also a cost to this.

We have made it clear with Arriva that if bendy buses return to the roads they should be phased out

It is a cost for the taxpayer.

Of course. Arriva has to determine how to phase them out, but added to this is the change in routes that we want to achieve.

The route changes will require more buses and drivers as the company will be expected to cover more kilometres.

These will incur more expenses according to the contract, but we will discuss this with them.

What will the route changes you are proposing cost the taxpayer?

The contract states that if we are to increase the kilometres travelled by Arriva buses, we have to pay for them.

Do you have an estimate?

When the routes are finalised we will know what the difference in kilometres is and then we will have an estimate. I want this exercise finalised by the end of November.

Arriva would have analysed the routes and worked out the additional expenses. After November we have to pass to the implementation phase. That can take some time until more buses are brought over and drivers recruited.

You are saying that the level of subsidy will practically go up to the same level as that paid to the previous yellow bus owners before the reform. The last subsidy paid at the time was around €9 million.

I cannot say that, but we found a contract that tied our hands. If we do not fork out more money we will not solve the public transport problem.

Do we want to solve it or not? If we want a solution we will have to fork out more expenses. It is clear, we have no other option.

Are you saying that the lower subsidy that your predecessor had trumpeted when Arriva started operating came at the expense of a better service?

What you are asking about I had publicly noted at the time. Rather than boast about the lower subsidy, I had predicted the country would have to fork out additional expenses.

While I agreed with the reform it was not carried out correctly and the authorities ignored warnings they had. They went ahead with the plans. It was the government of the time that drafted the routes and handed them to Arriva.

Today we are bound by the contract and we will have to pay for the extra kilometres that are needed to improve things.

Arriva has some problems of its own with the contract and so we will be able to sit down and discuss things. It will be a give-and-take situation. But the suspension of bendy buses has not cost taxpayers a cent.

Does Arriva have a future here?

It depends on the company. It is irrelevant to me who the operator is as long as I have a good service.

I want to ensure that public transport is efficient, reaches people’s expectations and encourages them to abandon private cars, resulting in less pollution and a cleaner environment.

This is my target, irrespective of the company running the service. Today I have this problem on my hands and I want to ensure the service meets people’s expectations.

I am asking because in its annual report for 2012, Arriva’s parent company said it lost money on its Malta operation. The latest cost as a result of the bendy bus ban – more than €30,000 daily to rent out the coaches – will exacerbate the company’s financial problem.

I will not talk about the company’s financial situation. It entered into contract with the previous administration, which bound it to offer a service. I am insisting that the service is provided.

Tomorrow schools re-open and coaches that have replaced the bendy buses are used to transport students. Will this lead to a disruption for students?

The chairman of Transport Malta and I are not so irresponsible not to have thought of the consequences.

If we want a solution we will have to fork out more expenses. We have no other option

We knew schools would re-open and ensured that public transport is not disrupted while schools will still be served. We verified that there were enough coaches available to meet the demands of both services.

The elderly have complained because the coaches are not low floor. This makes it difficult for them to board with the same ease they were accustomed to since Arriva started operating more than two years ago.

The coaches were part of our contingency plan to continue providing the service. Did anybody know that they [bendy buses] would start catching fire? But it happened and I had to ensure safety without disrupting the service. There are deficiencies and what you refer to is one of them.

This will not last forever. We have to solve the problem, but I am not ready to accept [the return of bendy buses] unless I am persuaded with facts that they are safe.

I cannot put people’s lives at risk. I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to elderly people with the use of coaches but the affair has had its positive consequences as well.

Without bendy buses traffic congestion dropped drastically and this was acknowledged by Arriva.

But it transpired one of the reasons for a drop in traffic congestion is the fact people do not pay when using the coaches, which means the vehicles are stationary for brief periods and arrive quicker at their destination.

If people are encouraged to buy tickets before boarding buses it can contribute substantially to reducing traffic congestion.

The Prime Minister had commented a couple of weeks ago that traffic congestion dropped because bendy buses were removed. But could it also be a consequence of people using the bus service less because they thought it was not going to be efficient?

No, this is not the case because the number of passengers carried remained the same. Arriva did experience a drop in ticket sales but the reason was that people were not paying to use the coaches.

What happened was the flow was faster and I can say that since bendy buses were removed the number of complaints I received dropped.

Could it be that the choice of bendy buses was not ideal for the exigencies of the Maltese public transport system?

I believe that bendy buses caused problems. Unfortunately, they have ended up being the butt of many jokes. An Arriva driver who helped a motorist put out a fire in his car was hailed an expert in firefighting by passers-by. This is the state bendy buses have been reduced to. Very few people were happy with them.

You said there was a faster turnover because passengers did not pay when boarding coaches. This will require a mentality change for people to buy tickets beforehand. In this case it worked because the service was free.

I do not think it worked because it was free. My wife tried paying...

But there is a culture where people expect to pay the driver.

This culture has to change. But we had an incident here [the replacement of bendy buses with coaches] that has taught us a lesson and we must learn from it.

Foreigners resident in Malta have claimed discrimination because they pay higher fares than Maltese residents when using the buses. The European Commission is probing this. Will you redress this injustice?

We intend to fix it. The discrimination will have to stop but obviously this will come at a cost because it was part of the contract.

Arriva has a 10-year contract to provide public transport. Do you see the company here that long?

I am not thinking about that. I am interested in having an efficient bus service, operated according to regulations and that ensures public safety.