Transport Malta insists commuters ‘being served better’ with new routes

Transport Malta defended the recent bus route revamp, claiming that feedback received so far “indicates that many commuters are being served better” with criticism “localised to certain areas or localities”.

While insisting that it is still “premature” to make an objective assessment of the changes, the transport regulator said that it acknowledges the need to “tweak” some routes, including the X1 route from Cirkewwa to the centre of Malta, so as to improve frequency. 

“We are committed to looking into such concerns and shall be addressing issues raised by the public and local councils,” Transport Malta said in a statement. “The authority will fine tune and adjust routes to ensure that the public is served better and confident to use public transport.

“The new routes were designed following an extensive consultation period during which more than 3,500 proposals were considered.  Now that the service is operating with normal schedules, commuters are still adjusting their travel patters to new routes. As expected, this takes more than one week.

“Until 3 January, as customary during the festive season, the service was operating on Saturday schedule and thus somewhat reduced service.”

During 2015, Transport Malta introduced 24 bus routes, changed a further 43 and added 80 new bus stops. In its statement, it noted that every locality now has a direct service to Valletta and Mater Dei Hospital and that 142 new buses, equipped with environmental friendly Euro 6 engines, have been added to the fleet.

“The buses will now do 36,600 trips every week, an increase of over 2,800 trips, and they will cover 2.5 million kilometres more each year,” it said.