Feedback received to the changes in bus routes so far indicates that many commuters are being served better, according to Transport Malta.
Negative complaints received are localised to certain areas or localities and TM acknowledged the fact that some routes, such as X1, necessitate some tweaking including adjustment in frequencies.
"TM is committed to look into such concerns and shall be addressing issues raised by the public and local councils. The authority will fine-tune and adjust routes to ensure that the public is served better and confident to use public transport."
The new routes designed following an extensive consultation period during which more than 3,500 proposals were considered. Now that the service is operating with normal schedules, commuters are still adjusting their travel patters to new routes. As expected, this takes more than one week, TM said in a statement this afternoon.
It said the route network increased by 2,800 trips every week and by 2.5 million kilometres every year. During 2015, Transport Malta introduced 24 new routes, changed 43 routes and added 80 new bus stops.
Every locality now has a direct service to Valletta and Mater Dei Hospital. 142 new buses, equipped with environmental friendly Euro 6 engines, have joined the service.
The statement contrasts sharply with a story carried in today's print edition of Times of Malta which reflected the complaints received to the changes made.
Incensed bus commuters have set up an online petition calling for a revision of the latest route changes, collecting hundreds of signatures in less than 24 hours.
This follows at least another two online petitions launched in the past weeks with some 1,000 signatures between them.
The petition launched late on Thursday, urging the Transport Ministry to remove or improve the new routes, garnered more than 740 signatures by 6pm yesterday.
The petition calls for the reversion of routes introduced on December 20 to how they were before.
The December route changes seem to have provoked complaints reminiscent of the takeover of the service by Arriva in 2011
“The direct bus routes, particularly those to the Mater Dei Hospital and University of Malta area, have now been doubled with stops, and the number of buses going through these routes has decreased significantly.
“This is resulting in fuller buses, more traffic, chances of road accidents and many passengers arriving late to their destination or at times not arriving at all,” the petition says.
Another petition, launched two weeks ago, is calling on the service operator to “bring back the old bus routes”, while a third by Joanna Debono from Mġarr calls for better public transportation for the residents of the rural village.
Pre-empting the launch of the changes, the petition had warned that the alterations were going to make the situation for the Mġarrin worse.
The December route changes seem to have provoked complaints reminiscent of the takeover of the service by Arriva in 2011. After it passed on to Autobuses de Leon last year, commuters appeared to be mostly satisfied with the service, but complaints have been flooding in for two weeks.
With more than 5,700 votes until 3.30pm today, a timesofmalta.com poll showed that at least two fifths disagreed with the revised bus schedule. Questions sent to the ministry remained unanswered by the time our newspaper went to print.
Mr Mizzi was asked whether he was concerned about the increase in complaints and how the government justified the higher subsidy (€29 million) when commuters were saying they were worse off.
The ministry was also asked how the current situation was any different from when Arriva used to operate the service, given the numerous complaints by commuters.