Banning garbage collection and delivery vans during the morning rush hour could help ease “complicated” traffic problems, according to the Spanish company running the bus service.
“There is no European city like Malta where such services are allowed during the morning rush hour because they usually stop at 8am,” Julio Tironi said.
The transportation division director of Autobuses de Leon, which has been running Malta Public Transport since January, floated the idea at an informal briefing in which he shared his views of its experience so far and looked ahead.
He acknowledged that the ever-increasing traffic on Maltese roads was probably the toughest challenge his company had to face, even though the matter was largely outside its control.
Two years ago, the government announced plans to ban heavy vehicles and horses from the roads during the peak traffic hours. The proposal was made during the 2014 Budget Speech but the enthusiasm fizzled out and the measure was never implemented.
However, plans to ban waste collection during rush hour seem to have been revived, since local councils have just been asked to change collection times to alleviate the traffic problem.
Mr Tironi said Malta Public Transport would be making a series of proposals to the government next year.
In spite of expanding its fleet of buses, the operator is still having problems servicing certain routes. Boarding a bus to Valletta from Malta’s most popular beach at Għadira Bay in the afternoon, for example, is still an ordeal.
At times, this forces commuters to make certain arrangements, like taking a bus to Ċirkewwa and back to ensure they will board the bus home.
While acknowledging that the service at times left much to be desired, Mr Tironi noted that certain mitigating measures required the backing of the drivers’ unions. Declining to go into detail, he said the company had made proposals in this sense with the aim of signing a new collective agreement. This, he said, would give it more flexibility to respond to certain situations and beef up the service in case of an emergency.
Following the introduction of the new bus card at the start of July, the emphasis would now be on the route network expansion, which would happen in four phases by the end of the year.
Works on the extension of the Valletta terminus are scheduled to be completed by the end of next month
The first changes will come on September 13 and affect 11 routes. Works on the extension of the Valletta terminus are scheduled to be completed by end-September. “This will make it possible to launch the second phase in October, which will involve major changes,” Mr Tironi said.
The remaining alterations in the network will be rolled out at the start of November and December. In this way, the company hopes to be operating all routes requested by the transport watchdog.
Commenting on the experience so far, Mr Tironi said the biggest challenge was undoubtedly the introduction of the Tallinja card. In spite of months of preparations and an aggressive information campaign, in its first days the system was hampered by technical problems that fuelled a barrage of criticism. The operator also faced numerous complaints that the card was delivered late.
Though Mr Tironi acknowledged that the company had been overwhelmed, he accepted that this was to be expected as the fares for non-card holders were intentionally raised. “Our best-case scenario was to receive about 100,000 applications and not double this amount which, is roughly half the entire population.
“This rate is probably a first in Europe,” he said.
Of the 200,000 cards issued, about 120,000 were already being used on a regular basis, he added.
“From a technical aspect, the situation has improved drastically as we are now getting about 50 errors a day, which is negligible when compared to the number of card users,” Mr Tironi remarked.
As for the time taken for the credit to become active, the operator is pledging this will not take more than 24 hours.
The bus company refuted claims that the new fare structure, which replaced the highly popular €1.50 day tickets, had resulted in higher prices even for card holders. Though concession cards for the elderly have a daily 50c capping and a monthly €2 limit, beyond which they would no longer be charged, no such arrangement applied for adults and students.
The €1.30 two-hour ticket was also scrapped and replaced by a 75c single journey fare (including line changes) valid for two hours.
The operator defended the new structure, saying it was tailor-made to reward frequent users.
“Previously, the maximum monthly expense for users purchasing day tickets was €45 but under the new structure there is an automatic monthly capping of €26 for adults and €21 for students. So heavy users will save money, after all,” Mr Tironi said.
For the long term, the company plans to widen the use of cards for other means of transport, which would include the ferry service to Gozo and Grand Harbour.