In defence of bendy-buses

Huge mammoths on the road are bound to be unpopular with motorists, especially when these are not being driven well or not deployed properly along major arteries and end up clogging town centres. 

But while many complain about the arrival of the bendy-bus, which can take 120 people at one go, few complain the fact that too many private cars are clogging our roads. The fact that bendy-buses can take so many people at one go on one bus, is in itself positive and helps to reduce congestion.

Bendy-buses are an easy target in a country where we are still struggling with the inevitability of giving precedence to public transport over private motorists.

I am sure the majority of Maltese drivers identified themselves with Boris Johnson's jibe that he is delighted that bendy-buses are clogging up streets in Malta. Most of them ignore the fact that it is primarily their own small cars that are clogging our streets and causing respiratory diseases.

Boris Johnson's choice to reintroduce the double-decker was a typical Tory choice which ignored the needs of disabled people, people carrying trolleys and pushchairs, and those who were no longer left behind in large queues.

I personally remember having to wait for hours in long queues on the Sliema-Gzira promenade. Clearly on such routes the only alternative to the bendy-bus is a legion of smaller buses: a solution that could be more polluting and less cost-effective.  Those clamouring for Boris Johnson and jumping on this bandwagon of his mockery should also be willing to fork out more subsidies to Arriva to buy more small buses.

Probably motorists will still be grumbling if the number of buses increases. Moreover the number of buses should increase irrespective of the number of bendy-buses on our roads. Just imagine the reaction of the same motorists if a tramline was introduced right in the middle of our roads!

Surely there are roads where such means of transport is unsuitable and where these buses are still being used nonetheless. Neither does the deployment of bendy-buses at night, when they are practically empty, make much sense.

It is also clear that not just any driver can drive a bendy-bus properly, and that they have to be specifically trained for this purpose.

What would make sense is to use bendy-buses to carry commuters along the main arteries, while increasing the number of smaller buses within town centres. Ideally we should move towards the idea of interconnections where commuters travelling on large buses are dropped in stages where they can complete their journey on a small bus.

But let's not get too much impressed by a jocose Tory's "little England" pearls of wisdom. Bendy-buses are used in most of Europe. The Economist notes "many of the capital's rejects are being picked up rather closer to home, by Bristol and Brighton". The article also dismisses Johnson's claims that bendy-buses are cyclist killers.

Moreover his decision to ditch bendy-buses was not universally acclaimed especially by the most vulnerable categories public transport is meant to serve. Boris Johnson's choice to replace bendies with double deckers was socially regressive.

As former Guardian editor Peter Preston wrote: "Just crunch the numbers. The bendies could fit 120 on board: double deckers take only 85. You can feel the squeeze already. Maybe there still seem to be plenty of places left - but half of them are upstairs. We strugglers don't do stairs. No sticks, no shopping trolleys and - in my case - look, not much in the way of arms..."