Transport Minister Austin Gatt, his head of secretariat Emanuel Delia and Transport Malta must “shoulder responsibility” for the fraught transport reform, according to the Labour Party.

During a press conference held at the Valletta Terminus yesterday – nine days after the service was launched – Labour spokesmen Joe Sammut and Stefan Buontempo said the problems enveloping the new service were down to bad planning and lack of consultation.

On Monday, Mr Delia said some inefficient routes would be reviewed “in the shortest possible term”, hopefully by the time new driver shifts for the coming month are rolled out.

Dr Sammut said such a statement was an admission of failure by Mr Delia, who was at the helm of the reform, and such management by crisis culture had to stop.

The Labour MP would not specify whether there should be resignations, nor did he have any specific remedy to what the government should do apart from consult with stakeholders, and repeated that “responsibility had to be shouldered”.

On his part, Dr Buontempo accused the government and Transport Malta of being cut off from reality, saying the new system was not designed with the needs of the community in mind.

An example of this, both MPs said, was the elimination of direct routes to Mater Dei Hospital and University. This meant vulnerable people who had appointments at hospital were subject to more stress and were arriving late for their appointments, putting more pressure on the healthcare system.

Dr Buontempo mentioned other examples where the new system was disconnected from reality. In Gudja, a bus stop had been placed in front of a private garage, he said.

Other points were raised by the Qormi local council which said that the new routes did not serve the aging residents of the St George area.

The Transport Ministry said the routes were first planned by Halcrow Group Ltd after a November 2008 study, which were then published for consultation the following month during a national conference.

The ministry said that in April 2009, councils were given copies of the new routes and were asked to comment and give their suggestions. With a few exceptions, all the changes requested were adopted, the ministry said, adding it had also asked for reactions in the third phase of consultation.

“Incidentally, the Labour Party’s spokesmen that spoke out today never gave any opinion regarding the routes up for consultation,” the ministry said.