Free buses lead to January increase of 59% in passengers

Malta Public Transport carried 4.5 million passengers in the first month of 2023, an increase of 59% when compared to January 2022, and an increase of 17% when compared to January 2019.

This is the second consecutive month where the number of passengers surpassed pre-pandemic numbers.

“These positive results are clear evidence that more and more passengers are choosing to travel by bus,” said Konrad Pulé, General Manager of Malta Public Transport.

“We need to focus on making journeys by public transport quicker so that we can continue to meet the increasing demand for public transport. We would like to thank all our passengers, who are contributing to a cleaner environment, and we look forward to working with more stakeholders to continue to improve their experience on board the bus.”

The free public transport initiative launched in October 2022 has also had a substantial impact, with 140,000 individual Tallinja Card holders travelling by bus during January 2023, compared to 91,000 in January 2022 and 120,000 in January 2019. That represents a 15% increase in individuals that used the bus at least once compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The positive trend was also reflected on the Tallinja Direct services, which are not included in the free public transport initiative. The number of passengers travelling on Tallinja Direct routes more than doubled when compared to 2019, which means that people recognise the benefit of arriving quicker with these faster routes.

“We need to continue working hard to improve our bus service further in order to attract more people to use the bus. People are telling us that public transport needs to be more efficient, more reliable and with shorter journey times,” Pulé said. “We will continue discussing various improvements to the route network with different stakeholders to make public transport more attractive.”