Arriva doubles frequency of route 73

Reacting to Transport Malta's calls to improve the levels of service on the 70s route group in terms of reliability and punctuality, Arriva undertook measures to address these problems including the deployment of additional bus capacity on this route group.

Arriva has now doubled the frequency of the route while Transport Malta is closely monitoring the performance.

Last month, Transport Malta had expressed its disappointment with the quality of services in terms of reliability and punctuality of the 70s route group (71: Valletta-Zurrieq; 72: Valletta-Qrendi; 73: Valletta-Bubaqra). The authority had warned Arriva that should it fail to upgrade its level of service to an acceptable level, Transport Malta would have no choice but to deploy extra resources to supplement the transport service at the expense of Arriva itself.

Transport Malta today confirmed that Arriva has implemented fully the doubling of frequency of route 73 which in addition to Bubaqra, also serves Zurrieq and St Vincent de Paule hospital.

Transport Malta has also surveyed and communicated to Arriva its findings on routes 82 (Valletta-Birzebbuga); X1 (Cirkewwa-Ajruport); and 43 (Valletta-Naxxar). Transport Malta is presently awaiting Arriva's response on what measures it intends to take on these routes to bring them up to the contractually required levels.

"We will also continue on its monitoring program throughout the route network to ensure the operator's compliance with the contracted requirements of reliability and punctuality," Transport Malta added.