Spanish bus service operator Autobuses de Leon says patronage has increased by seven per cent in its first year of operations, even though it acknowledges the service is still six months short of reaching its full potential.

Based on the 40 million commuters who made used of the service last year, this equates to about 2.8 million passengers.

These figures were revealed by Malta Public Transport general manager Konrad Pulé in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta.

The company, which two years ago started off as a State-owned entity, was last January taken over by the Spanish transport company.

“This year we have exceeded our own expectations as usage has increased by up to seven per cent and our target is to replicate this success next year,” he said.

However, the MPT general manager pointed out that no precise comparisons could be made before July 1 as in the first six months of the year commuters use to buy day tickets. Therefore no records were kept. This had forced the regulator to base its patronage figures on a series of estimates.

With the new ticketing structure introduced in July, day tickets have been scrapped and more precise monitoring is now possible.

“This means that completely accurate patronage levels can only be calculated next July when like-with-like comparisons will be possible”.

‘Bus service six months short of reaching its full potential’

Reacting to criticism that the level of service did not reflect the steep increase in the government’s subsidy which has gone up from €10 million in 2013 (the last year Arriva operated the service) to €29 million for 2016, he said throwing more money at the problem would not necessarily solve anything.

“You still need a plan and a lot of work behind the scenes, as we have been doing until now.”

So, which factors will have a major bearing on the level of service?

“The new routes will be a major factor as we are also increasing frequency during peak times, and tweaking the schedule to reflect traffic level variations during the day,” the MPT general manager said.

He noted how these measures were not possible until a few months ago, as the company had neither the buses nor the drivers to cater for such situations. “This is why the route network changes were phased in gradually,” he said.

We have to find alternatives like having more buses during peak times

Yet, the company acknowledges that further “route optimisation” might be required depending on the feedback they get in the coming weeks.

The company is confident that the new routes will address critical areas, where demand has exceeded supply. “For example Route 12 for Buġibba which most of the time leaves Valletta full, will be starting from Sliema while new routes serving Sliema will be added”.

The operator believes that by next summer all pieces in the jigsaw would have fallen into place, and the service will be running as it should with more buses and better punctuality.

However, commuters who have long been calling for the re-introduction of bus terminuses across towns and villages, believing the service back then was much more reliable, have been left disappointed.

“It is not the most efficient way to allocate resources, but we have to find alternatives like sending out more buses during peak times, which is now possible as we have more vehicles” Mr Pulé said.

The real-time computer application used by the company to monitor the route network and real-time position of buses.

“Though we still need to improve the overall user experience, this year we were successful in a number of areas, like the number of drivers which have nearly doubled from 580 to 1,090,” he added.

In the meantime the company has expanded its fleet by 143 vehicles, with an additional 33 buses on the way by summer, when the overall size of the fleet will consist of about 390 vehicles.

This expansion was necessary to cater for the new routes which will be rolled out completely next Sunday when the Valletta bus terminus extension will be at full capacity for the first time.

The revamped network will include 24 new routes and changes to an additional 22 existing routes, increasing the number of daily trips from 4,800 to 5,200. “Apart from this, in 2015, we also launched a new ticketing system, which I admit could have been handled better, but ultimately was a huge success as there are now 225,000 registered users, of whom over 165,000 have already made use of it,” the MPT general manager said.

He noted that such a huge take-up was not only due to the new price structure which penalised users who purchased traditional paper tickets, but also due to a shift in mentality.

“The fact that electronic ticketing has increased from one to 86 per cent in just form months is a success,” he noted. Yet, he said, it was still too early to say if the new cards had reduced boarding time, due to the changes in the route network which complicated comparisons.

“We estimate that a third of our users have a car, but our aim is to increase this figure as this would also help to reduce traffic and make the service more efficient.”

The MPT general manager said the first steps towards this target would be a more user-friendly website, switching back the electronic boards showing real-time information of any delays, and a new mobile application. All of these measures are expected to be implemented in the coming weeks.

“Apart from topping up the card, the app will also enable commuters waiting at the bus stops to scan a bar code and get the latest real-time information, such as time left for boarding,” Mr Pulé said.

In spite of promises to do so, to date the contract between the Spanish operator and the government has not been published. Consequently, no evaluation of the company’s performance could be made in respect of its contractual obligations set by the Transport Ministry.

Nevertheless, he admits the company has already been slapped with a number of fines over “minor” technical issues such as the windscreen washers of a number of buses not being large enough.

Asked if there had been service-related infringements such as lack of punctuality, he said these kinds of penalty clauses were due to come into force now, as the company had been granted a one-year transitional period.

Critics, however, insist, that sending more buses will just mean more vehicles stuck in traffic. So how does the company plan to address this seemingly insurmountable challenge?

“It is like a vicious circle as having more buses on the road will increase efficiency, but I acknowledge we must first do our part to lure more people to use the service and leave their car at home, before we can overcome this hurdle,” he said.