Transport Malta to start regulating Arriva’s work as from next Friday

Transport Malta Chief Executive Officer Stanley Portelli said that TM would shift to the regulation of Arriva this week, after having provided a supporting role to the bus company on complaint and traffic hotspots.

“Our primary objective is to ensure that the contractual and regulatory obligations regulating the service are met,” Portelli said in a press conference.

The announcement of TM’s new role comes in a week when Transport Minister Austin Gatt and other officials responsible for the public transport reform face a resignation motion in Parliament moved by the Opposition.

However, Portelli denied that TM's announcement had anything to do with the motion: “The contract establishes that as from November 4, Arriva is bound to provide the service it was contracted for. It has nothing to do with the motion.”

Asked for a reaction over the motion, Portelli would not say anything, except that he will be in Parliament next Friday to see how the voting goes.

Launching the tools that will be used to regulate the system, Portelli said that before the authority had no tools to ensure that the previous contractor was adhering to its contractual agreement.

During the monitoring period, TM issued fines to Arriva on safety issues and behaviour of the drivers.

It also issued warnings with regard to breaches on passenger comfort and information, driver and employee presentation and warnings on waiting and time and schedule compliance covering four weeks activity in preparation for November.

Portelli said the penalties amounted to “a few thousands. Not insignificant … but not too big.”

“Penalties will double as the contract enters its sixth year, over and above penalties in existing regulations.”

By way of example, Portelli said that if Arriva is found in breach of its safety equipment compliance on buses it would be fined €500 and an extra €50 per day it doesn’t comply.

On the schedule and waiting time compliance, which was the main flop of the reform, the contract provided a grace period of four months – coming to an end on November 3 – before the penalties start.

“This was to allow the operator acquaint itself with the new network,” Portelli said. “The penalties are designed to address patterns of delays and not exceptions.”

Referring to TM’s regulatory role, Portelli said that the authority will base its enforcement on the contract which specifies the service levels and penalties.

“We have a team of 11 people and other people on the ground who will be solely focused on the public transport. All buses are equipped with real time locators linked to our control room.”

Portelli added that the control room has a rewind facility that would enables them to go back and check the route and time a specific bus would have made if any queries arise.

“We receive daily logs of every time a bus stops, which make up around 144,000 stops per day,” he said.

The control room makes use of two main systems, one depicting real time line maps, the other would give a real time image of the geographical position on the map of all buses.

Each bus, driver and bus stop has a unique code that would be visible on both maps. The line map would give real time linear visual of the arrival and departure destination of a bus and the stops it has to make. It also gives the position of the bus, information on whether it is running early or late or whether it changed its route. It also informs the control room whether the driver has logged on to the system.

The system is also able to tell whether a bus, which is on schedule, has the probability to run early or late.  

The geographical map gives a detailed outline of the position of the bus and the roads it is passing through.