Arriva had been in the process of declaring bankruptcy on the subsidy it was paid and requested €45 million to continue with its service, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said today.
In an opinion piece in The Sunday Times of Malta (read it here), the minister said that, on the contrary, the new operator was being given €29 million and the network was more extensive with buses running more frequently.
“The increased subsidy that is being given to the new service provider has made it possible to modify 43 routes and add a further 24 routes, resulting in the addition of over 400 new trips every day. It has also meant we can offer even cheaper fares to students and people with disabilities. Of course, we can decide to cut subsidies and shrink the network and make an instant saving of €10 million or more but I am convinced that the social and environmental cost would be substantially more,” he said.
Dr Mizzi said that last year, the company carried around 40 million passengers, an estimated increase of almost seven per cent. Over 500 drivers were recruited last year and 143 new buses were brought to Malta, with an additional 33 to arrive in June.
“We have reviewed and improved the route system. We have increased the route network from 4,800 to 5,200 trips per day, 2,000 bus stops in Malta and Gozo have all been updated and 93 real-time information panels are being tested.
“I have to admit that the improvement to the network took longer than I was aiming for because of the dispute between the operator and the unions. The representation issue was finally resolved but it meant that rather than initiate the route augmentation and changes as originally intended in a four-phase process, we needed to make up for lost time and these were introduced at one go.
“We recognise the fact that these are substantial changes, and given the volume involved, cannot be perfect. We are therefore committed to fine-tuning them. Certainly we have already started to do this wherever a clear situation has been found to exist. Our research among commuters has indicated that their main concerns relate to punctuality and information provision and this will be our next focus.”
Punctuality, the minister said, was not always the operator’s fault but where it was, the government was intervening. Scheduled trips, he said, would be adhered to, and information will become available online, on phones and increasingly at bus stop locations.