Arriva test on Notte Bianca ‘handled professionally’ says government

Transport Malta praised Arriva with the way it handled the public transport system last weekend during Notte Bianca, even though there were “sporadic problems especially inbound to Valletta”.

According to government, Arriva sold 33,000 pre-printed tickets outbound from Valletta after 11pm and its supply of tickets ran out at around 1am.

Subsequently sales of tickets continued on buses.

Government said that if to the 33,000 tickets sold, one adds the tickets sold on board, the persons who left Valletta before 11pm and the children who travelled from free, Transport Malta calculates that Arriva must have carried between 40,000 and 45,000 passengers outbound from Valletta last Saturday.

“The outbound routes were operated by 77 buses and – even though full – the operation ran smoothly and with few problems  relative to the number of persons carried in the short time available,” Transport Malta said.

A substantial drop in the number of cars used to get to the event was noted when compared to last year’s edition.

“Transport Malta believes that a substantial number of people made the decision to use public transport rather than their private car.

“This is confirmed by reports we received from different localities that buses towards Valletta were passing full of passengers and therefore not stopping to pick up passengers. In certain cases waits lasted around an hour.”

Transport Malta added that it understood that the inbound leg was an exceptional strain on the system, which had to be met while remaining operating the other network “Nevertheless, now that for the first time, Transport Malta has statics on patronage of these extraordinary events, we will be working with Arriva to better handle the expected demand in such occasions.”