TM to focus on Arriva inter-locality and direct hospital services in near future

Following a letter sent to public transport service provider Arriva, Transport Malta carried out extensive monitoring on a number of bus routes, to ensure that the level of public transport is brought in line with contracted levels and the users' needs and expectations.

In a statement, Transport Malta said it has monitored the 70s route group and the average reliability recorded in the morning peaks, and also throughout the day on these routes have been brought up to between 90% and 100%, which is significantly better than what was reported three weeks ago.

With regard to punctuality, this also increased from 50% to 94%.

"This improvement is due to the various measures that were put into place by the bus operator, including the allocation of additional resources, and the adjustment of the schedules and timetables to better reflect the actual journey times," Transport Malta said.

The authority added that it is aware of various problems across the network, but it has decided to prioritise the allocation of resources for monitoring, on the main lines that connect to and from Valletta, with the aim of establishing the causes, and addressing them effectively.

"This will then be followed with inter-locality and direct hospital services," it added.

Transport Malta has decided not to deploy any additional buses for the time being, but will continue to review the service levels regularly to ensure that the improvements made are sustained.

On its part, Arriva said that it has increased the number of buses on the routes while it had doubled the frequency on Route 73, which is now operating every 30 minutes.

Richard Hall, Arriva Malta's Managing Director, said: "We embarked on a detailed timing and reliability exercise have rescheduled these routes to better meet our customers demands, enhance the services we offer and lay down a very solid foundation over which we will continue building in the future. Both our customers and the regulator for transport have immediately noticed and commented on the improvements we have brought to the 70s. We know that what we have done and achieved on the 70s is real and works for our customers, and on these achievements we will look build long term sustainbiltiy and reliability."

The new timetables are available online at www.arriva.com.mt/wintertime or through Arriva's Customer Care Centre, reachable on 2122-2000 or [email protected].