Malta Public Transport Services is still forking out around €210,000 per week to subcontract vehicles from the Unscheduled Bus Service to ensure the public transport system can operate without the withdrawn bendy buses.
Currently the operator is subcontracting 42 vehicles (26 coaches and 16 minibuses) per week from UBS, a cooperative of private coach and minibus companies.
A spokesman for the public transport operator said the weekly cost of sub-contracting 40 vehicles from UBS in December was €210,000.
He added the cost of hiring the coaches and minibuses would soon be reduced.
“Since that time [December], the business has reappraised its needs and is concluding discussions with UBS to hire vehicles at lower rates,” he said.
UBS has been providing vehicles for the public transport service since bendy buses were withdrawn in late August over safety fears after three caught fire within a short space of time.
In September, Times of Malta had reported that the then operator Arriva was paying €30,000 a day (€210,000 weekly) to sub-contact vehicles from UBS.
If it has been receiving €210,000 every week since it began operating parts of the public transport service 24-and-a-half weeks ago, UBS will have received more than €5million to date.
Malta Public Transport Services temporarily took over the running of the public bus network on January 1 after Arriva agreed to terminate its 10-year contract following two-and-a-half years of service problems and heavy financial losses.
A call for expressions of interest in operating the service was published last month. The closing date for submissions is April 4.
The financial cost of subcontracting buses is compounded by the fact that drivers of these vehicles are instructed not to charge fares because their vehicles are not fitted with the necessary ticket-issuing equipment.
The loss in revenue due to fares not being charged on subcontracted buses is estimated at around €6,000 weekly, the spokesman said.
Malta Public Transport is currently in discussions with UBS to install ticket machines on as many of these buses as possible.
In the meantime, inspectors board these buses with portable ticket machines to allow passengers to purchase tickets, the spokesman said.
The 81 bendy buses that Malta Public Transport inherited from Arriva have been put up for sale. The closing date for expressions of interest was last Friday.
Asked to disclose how many expressions of interest they received, the spokesman replied that it would be “imprudent” to give out details on such “commercially sensitive information”.
A report into the fires last August by experts appointed by Transport Malta concluded that diesel spillage and poor cooling were the likely cause. However, the possibility of arson could not be totally ruled out given that there were several fires in such a short space of time.