Transport Malta is negotiating compensation that will be due to Arriva when it eventually diverts  buses away from Sliema’s newly pedestrianised Bisazza Street and through Tigné instead, the Transport Ministry said yesterday.

The government is standing firm behind its decision to pedestrianise the busy shopping street after the bus company, which is due to start operations on July 3, said it had to honour its contract with Transport Malta. This stipulates that buses on several different routes should pass through Bisazza Street.

The contract also lays down a formula for compensation under which a re-routing of this nature will have to take place. This is calculated by multiplying distance by frequency, with the latter being the crucial element in this case.

Emanuel Delia, head of secretariat at the Transport Ministry, explained that the distance was multiplied by the number of buses affected – and in this case, because several buses were involved, it would amount to a lot.

“The same distance on a route in, say, Gudja (where there is lower frequency) would not have the same impact.”

While the decision to close Bisazza Street to traffic was taken by the Resources Ministry, the new routes are being drawn up by Transport Malta.

A spokesman for Arriva said only that the company was “working on a solution” to the situation.

In a bid to counter criticism that the transport and resources ministries were acting against each other, the government issued a statement on Friday saying the street would be pedestrianised but Arriva buses would pass through Bisazza Street for a “temporary and very limited time”, which it did not specify, until the necessary adjustments were made.

Meanwhile, Mr Delia said rumours that councils would have to pay some form of compensation to Arriva for closing a road off temporarily were “complete rubbish”. In such cases, councils should inform Transport Malta of the planned closure which would in turn inform Arriva, who would tell its customers accordingly, he said.