Waiting two hours and a half for a bus to Cirkewwa

Commuters - and Gozitans in particular - today revisited the initial experience which afflicted the Arriva service in July when people had to wait for hours until their bus turned up.

According to Gozitans waiting on the stage at Mater Dei Hospital, many of whom had come down to Malta for medical appointments, ended up waiting for two and a half hours.

"We have been waiting since 3pm," an elderly couple said. "At this rate we'll reach home [in Gozo] at 10pm."

The bus finally turned up at 6:30pm. According to the couple, the bus which travelled to Cirkewwa missed the Mater Dei stop at 3pm.

The Gozitans were worried not only because they will not make in time for the Gozo Channel and would have to wait again, but were mostly preoccupied because of the drivers' strike.

Transport Malta however today said further improvements on the services was being monitored during peak hours, with practically all scheduled trips were performed on the routes being monitored with additional trips being performed on Route 3 (ix-Xgħajra), Route 41 (iċ-Ċirkewwa), Route 51 (l-Imtarfa), Route 52 (Ħad-Dingli), Route 53 (ir-Rabat), Route 62 (is-Siġġiewi), Route 82 (B'Żebbuga) and Route 91 (M'Skala).    

Despite the prevailing inclement weather no serious gaps were noticed on the routes being monitored, apart from Route 31 (in-Naxxar) which suffered due to congestion in the Naxxar area as a result of damage to the road caused during last night's storm.

Talks between Arriva and General Workers' Union to avert industrial action have failed, and drivers will go on with their industrial action. Drivers are unhappy with their roster, one which the GWU describes as "inhumane".

In a statement issued this evening, Transport Malta said there would be major disruptions in the provision of public transport services from 8pm until the turning down of services today.

"The industrial action will not affect public transport services tomorrow before 8pm and therefore services are expected to be operated normally between 5am and 8pm," TM said.

The Authority also said that public transport is deemed to be an essential service and workers in this sector are obliged at law to follow instructions by their employer to provide at least half of the scheduled transport services. "Arriva Malta is personally communicating instructions to employees required to provide this minimum essential service.  However, we advise passengers who can use alternative means of transportation to avoid relying on the scheduled bus service after 8pm."

TM also ordered the contractor to provide the public with periodic status updates and to mitigate inconvenience to passengers.