New bus routes will be rolled out in stages by the end of the year, with the first changes coming into force in the coming days, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said earlier today.

Addressing a press conference at the Valletta bus terminal, Mr Mizzi said the information leaflets on the first batch of route changes would be sent to residences in affected localities this week.

The changes include a few new routes covering trips from Birkirkara to Valletta and Vittoriosa to Valletta, but the bulk of the improvements will come in the form of route upgrades. The first batch of changes will see nine routes amended to increase frequency.

Mr Mizzi said the overall upgrade would be finalised by December, which would see some three million kilometres added to the existing network. He said some 80 new buses had been added to the fleet in the past two months, with another 60 expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

“The changes we are announcing today are based on logistics. We are still awaiting new vehicles, but in the meantime we are seeing that upgrades to existing routes can be handled with the current fleet,” Mr Mizzi said.

On the shaky tallinja card roll out Mr Mizzi apologised for the way the system was initially introduced, saying the situation could have been handled much better.

The introduction of the card system was riddled with setbacks, mostly linked to commuters not receiving their cards and their top ups not being processed.

Mr Mizzi said problems with cards were down to one per cent. Some 200,000 people have tallinja cards, with around 120,000 travellers using them regularly, he said.

The following are the changes:

Improved routes

054: Attard, Lija, Balzan, Birkirkara, Msida, Floriana, Valletta.

001: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Fgura, Bormal, Senglea

002: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Bormla, Vittoriosa.

003: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Bormla, Vittoriosa, Kalkara, Smart City, Rinella

061: Zebbug, Qormi, Marsa, Hamrun, Floriana, Valletta

062: Siggiewi, Qormi, Marsa, Hamrun, Floriana, Valletta

063: Qormi, Marsa, Hamrun, Floriana, Valletta

064: Sta Venera, Qormi, Hamrun, Floriana, Valletta

New Routes

047: Mosta, Lija, Birkirkara, Sta Venera, Pieta, Hamrun, Valletta

058: Birkirkara, Fleur de Lys, Sta Venera, Hamrun, Floriana, Valletta

004: Valletta, Floriana, Paola, Bormla, Vittoriosa