The anticipated 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 yesterday.
Addressing a press conference at the Valletta bus terminus, Mr Mizzi said 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 changes will come in the form of “route improvements”.
The first batch of changes will see nine routes amended, to increase frequency of buses as well as making extensions to the existing routes.
In total, the first batch of changes will see 23,000km per week added to the network.
Mr Mizzi said the overall upgrade would be finalised by December and by then it would have seen the addition of some three million kilometres.
He said some 80 new buses had been introduced in the past two months, with another 60 expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
In total some 140 vehicles will be added when the reform is finished in December.
“The changes we are announcing today are based on logistics. We are still awaiting new vehicles, but in the meantime we have seen upgrades to existing routes which could be handled by the current fleet,” Mr Mizzi said.
He added that the government had received around 3,500 suggestions and had discussed all changes with local stakeholders.
Asked what upgrades to the road network were envisaged to facilitate the introduction of a considerable number of additional buses, Mr Mizzi said the Valletta bus terminus was in the process of being upgraded to better facilitate the added routes.
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 the cards were down to one per cent. Some 200,000 people have tallinja cards, with around 120,000 travellers using them regularly, Mr Mizzi said.
Route changes
Improved routes:
054: Attard, Lija, Balzan, Birkirkara, Msida, Floriana, Valletta.
001: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Fgura, Cospicua, Senglea
002: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Cospicua, Vittoriosa.
003: Valletta, Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Cospicua, Vittoriosa, Kalkara, Smart City, Rinella
061: Żebbuġ, Qormi, Marsa, Ħamrun. Floriana, Valletta
062: Siġġiewi, Qormi, Marsa, Ħamrun, Floriana, Valletta
063: Qormi, Marsa, Ħamrun, Floriana, Valletta
064: Sta Venera, Qormi, Ħamrun, Floriana, Valletta
New Routes:
047: Mosta, Lija, Birkirkara Sta Venera, Pieta, Ħamrun, Valletta
058: Birkirkara, Fleur de Lys, Sta Venera, Ħamrun, Floriana, Valletta
004: Valletta, Floriana, Paola, Cospicua, Vittoriosa.
‘Knee -jerk’ solutions unacceptable
The Chamber of Commerce yesterday shot down proposals for children to be sent to school an hour earlier to cut down on morning traffic.
In a statement, the chamber said it was completely unacceptable that the traffic problem was being addressed with a string of knee- jerk solutions in the hope that some of them might work.
It was reacting to a 14-page White Paper entitled School Opening Hours and Traffic Congestion, which among other things suggests reorganising school schedules so they won’t coincide with heavy morning traffic. The chamber also objected to a “vague” reference to the delivery vans which should not clash with morning traffic.
“The lifeline of Malta’s business community deserves more than one line in a 14-page document,” the chamber said.
Asked about the document, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi declined to comment, saying only that the government was consulting the public on the suggestions.