From the very start of the service provided by Arriva, Marsascala has been fraught with big problems considering that our locality has over 10,000 residents.

The main-line bus No. 91, which serves Valletta every 10 minutes, does not even pass from the larger residential areas like the Jerma, Cerviola and St Thomas Bay. This means that residents have a walk of between 15 and 30 minutes in either hot weather or heavy rain to get to the bus. Elderly people and people with disabilities have just given up and they are virtual prisioners in their own homes. Marsascala has one home for the elderly and also another home for people with special needs; these are suffering the most as they cannot walk these long distances to get the bus to Valletta.

Before the start of Arriva all areas of the village were well served with three buses an hour to Valletta, i.e. Nos 17, 19 and 20. Marsascala residents have already suggested that Arriva reduces the service to Valletta to four an hour, that is, every 15 minutes instead of six an hour, i.e. every 10 minutes, and the four buses an hour can therefore serve all areas of the village if they follow this route:

Bus No. 19 goes to Żabbar as usual from Valletta every quarter of an hour, then goes into Triq il-Blajjiet to Żonqor and out from Triq iż-Żonqor towards Marina Street where from there it goes up Triq Il-Qaliet and out from Triq il-Gardiel to the terminus and out from the bypass to Triq Villabata towards Żabbar. This way all areas of Marsascala – Żonqor, Siberia , St Thomas Bay and Bellavista – would have a service to Valletta every 15 minutes covering the old 17, 19 and 20 routes in one without all the hassle of walking for ages. The other two buses which would be freed from Marsascala can be shifted to start and finish at Żabbar thereby also easing the problems on the Żabbar-Fgura route.

This suggestion is one which would ease the plight of all Marsascala commuters and stop the justified complaints.

Another issue is with bus No. 204 to University and Materi Dei. While this route is indeed a very good one, the timing is not.

This bus leaves Marsascala on the half past the hour and certainly during rush hour is not arriving at University before a quarter past causing students to be late for lectures. People with appointments at Mater Dei also have them usually on the hour.

Returning from University at five minutes past the hour is also not good for students on the far end of Campus who find the bus gone by the time they run to the University terminus. Therefore the suggestion is that the times are revised to have Bus No. 204 depart Marsascala at a quarter past the hour (ensuring students arrive in time for their hourly lectures) and departing University at no earlier than 10-15 minutes past the hour which would give students more time to cross Campus to get to the University bus terminus.

We hope that these suggestions do not yet again fall on deaf ears as it is the residents in the various localities who know exactly what they need and how they are affected by the changes effected by Arriva.