As applications for the new bus card approached 10,000 barely 48 hours after opening, teething troubles have emerged in connection with foreigners living in Malta, tourists and the elderly.
Launched last Sunday, the so-called Tallinja card will from July allow commuters to benefit from fares that will be cheaper than buying their ticket aboard the bus. Registration is linked to the new ID card and driving licence systems, and applicants need to provide a Maltese address.
However, a technical hitch has been preventing foreign nationals with a residency permit from completing the online registration process. This has fuelled complaints that the new fare structure will once again discriminate against foreigners, since, as things stand, they will have to buy the more expensive onboard tickets.
Furthermore, tourists are automatically excluded from the cheaper card option because they have no Maltese address.
In 2013, the European Commission launched legal proceedings against Malta over the two-tier fare structure introduced in July 2011, when Arriva took over the service. It eventually instructed Malta to ditch the system, saying it was illegal to set a higher price for foreigners. The new Labour government scrapped it last year.
Complaints have also been raised by elderly people with an expired ID card and with no driving licence, who will either have to go through a complicated online process to submit their photo and personal details or go through the ordeal of visiting Valletta or the Mater Dei ticket booths to submit their application.
Contacted by Times of Malta, a spokesman for Malta Public Transport Services acknowledged that there had been some problems but gave an assurance that the technical issues had been addressed.
He acknowledged that the online system may have been rejecting some applications from foreign nationals in possession of a residency permit due to the different configuration of their document number.
For this reason, he advised, they should input the number found on the top right of the front of their residency permit, starting with the letters MT, which should have seven or eight digits.
This number is entered in the second step of the registration, which asks for verification of the applicant’s identity.
The spokesman noted that the website had also been updated to illustrate this step.
On the other hand, foreigners with no residency card can apply using their passport number but will have to submit a photo to prove their identity.
Asked what arrangements would be made for tourists, the spokesman said that further details would be announced nearer to the date when the new card is in use.
As for applications from elderly people, the spokesman noted that this would be addressed through a series of road show events in various localities, set to begin in the coming days.
The Tallinja card will replace the existing personalised Saver Card introduced by Arriva, which had little success among bus users except for students.
As a matter of fact, in the first three months of this year revenue from the 23,000 Saver Cards in existence only accounted for six per cent of total income.