Malta Public Transport is currently not being penalised for trips which were not performed by the route buses, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi confirmed in Parliament.

He said that owing to the nature of the operation, there were days when some scheduled trips were not performed, 

He said that there was a transitory period in the contract with the operator, during which no penalties were imposed.

The minister earlier said the same thing when he reported that inspections had shown that the average temperature inside buses was 25.1 celsius when the contract provisions said it should be between 20 and 24 degrees.

The minister, replying to a series of questions by Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina, also said that between January and July MPT was given €13,416,662 in the first seven months of the year..

The minister said the transitory clause in the contract was similar to the contract with former operator Arriva. The clause was meant to enable the operator to adapt operations in line with contract requirements. 

No reductions in the subsidy were made.

He did not say how long the transitory period would last.