Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has contributed to the discussion on whether Arriva, the operator of the new bus service, has met expectations, saying the service needs to be improved.
“The Prime Minister is informed that the service provided by Arriva has improved significantly over the past few weeks but that there is also room for further improvement,” his spokesman said.
Echoing the sentiments expressed by the Transport Ministry earlier this week, the spokesman added: “It is vital that Arriva fulfils all its contractual obligations.”
The ministry said Arriva was still breaching some contractual obligations but penalties could only start being imposed from November, the fourth month of its launch. It said “solutions” to specific route problems were being sought but the large majority of trips were “reliable and fast, not to mention comfortable”.
Commuters, however, tend to disagree. They still complain of remaining stranded for hours on bus stops across the island, more than 70 days after the promised “reliable” service was rolled out.
Last Sunday was Arriva’s self-imposed deadline to provide the fully-fledged service expected from it. However, commuters say they have not seen “any difference between last week and this week”.
Complaints kept flooding in from all corners of the island, especially the Rabat, Cottonera, Marsascala, Buġibba, Żejtun and Sliema areas, where only the lucky few seem to have managed to board a bus within the maximum waiting time of 10 minutes.
Maximum waiting times are contractually defined as the maximum time passengers are expected to wait on any particular bus stop before they can board a bus without exceeding the maximum passenger capacity.
Tens of people could be seen waiting at bus stops in St Julians throughout the week as full buses on route 11, headed towards Ċirkewwa, could not load more passengers.
A frustrated American couple on their way to Mellieħa from Rabat had been told to take the direct route to St Julians and hop onto a route 11 bus from there to proceed to Ċirkewwa. They said they left Rabat before 3 p.m. but at 5.15 p.m. they were still waiting on a bus stop in St Julians.
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association reiterated that the changes introduced on Sunday had not led to a satisfactory improvement in the public transport service, judging by a random survey conducted by 15 hoteliers between Monday and Tuesday in core tourism areas, particularly Sliema, St Julians, Buġibba, Qawra and Mellieħa. It said the feedback from visitors was overall negative with some complaining vociferously about the long waits and the unacceptable standard of the service.
Earlier this week, the Transport Ministry said the majority of trips were reliable and fast. This “definitely” did not apply to bus route 31, leaving from Valletta, Maryanne Camilleri from Mosta said.
Although the bus was meant to run between Valletta and Buġibba every 10 minutes, commuters wishing to catch it from the stop on the Birkirkara bypass, near the lotto booth, spent about 40 minutes waiting. When the bus turned up, she added, it was either full up or could only take on a couple of passengers.
Ms Camilleri expressed concern at the fact that the number of commuters would increase as students returned to the University in October.
Many complaints have also been made over the past two months on bus route 91, running between Marsascala and Valletta. The situation does not seem to have improved.
Sandro Vella said on Tuesday he spent 30 minutes waiting for the bus together with about 40 other passengers. To add insult to injury, the smaller bus that was sent to pick up commuters could only take half of them.
Disgruntled commuters insisted problems did not only consist of buses arriving late.
Maria Micallef, from Żejtun insisted that people living in the Ġebel San Martin area had to walk for more than 20 minutes, mostly uphill, to reach the nearest bus stop, situated in the town’s bus terminus. She insisted residents wanted the previous route bus 29 back. Ms Micallef prefers to use her private car rather than “stressing out every morning” to get to work.
A colleague, Nicolette Camilleri, from Luqa, is not as lucky. She leaves home for St Julians at 5.15 a.m. to reach her workplace at 7 a.m. Bus number 71 from Żurrieq arrives full, while bus 72 from Qrendi has at times been even 25 minutes late. She said that the previous route bus 66, from Valletta to Pembroke, was stopped and she had to catch a third bus, either 113 or 123, to get to work.
“It is impossible to catch three buses in an hour, especially since the service is not reliable or regular,” she added.
Most commuters who spoke to the Times complained of the longer “sightseeing” routes, as they are commonly known nowadays, and of the irregular departure times.