Long queues continued to form outside offices of Malta Public Transport this morning, but matters seemed to have improved, with additional personnel having been deployed at the Valletta terminus.

Security was also improved.

The bus company said it processed 7,500 bus card registrations in 24 hours.

Some readers reported today that they had still received bus cards without their photo.

MPT said it has set up a new kiosk at the area known as Biskuttin near city gate to receive registrations for the new card.

The number of personnel in the company’s call centre has also been augmented.

Transport Minister Joe Mizzi was at Valletta terminus this morning to see what was going on.

He told Times of Malta that he was very concerned about what had taken place yesterday. He said he had been in contact with the operators and was pleased that matters were improving today.

"I am here to ensure that matters are done well," he said. 

A reader whose bus card did not work yesterday said it still did not work today, although he had seen other commuters who had no such problems.

He said the bus driver had insisted that he should pay €2 for his trip, but eventually relented.

The reader contacted MPT who told him they would send him another card.

Commercial director Daniel Grech said that most of yesterday's problems have been ironed out and welcomed feedback from commuters. Read an interview with Mr Grech in tomorrow's Times of Malta.

Video: Mark Zammit Cordina

Malta Transport said in the evening it continued to closely monitor developments and noted significant improvement.

Waiting times for customer service at the information points at various termini and particularly at Valletta, were significantly shorter than those experienced yesterday.

This was primarily due to the operator’s deployment of more customer care officials, better organisation and improved security, TM said.

It said it was confident that the addition of 40 new buses to the existing fleet would further enhance the operator’s operational capacity and its ability to improve the service.

The regulator said that nevertheless, it was still monitoring the situation relentlessly. It was pursuing the operator to ensure that pending card applications, problematic cards and new applications were processed in the shortest possible time possible.

 

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