[WATCH] Prepaid 'Oyster' style cards for new bus service

Alesa CEO on Malta's new public transport

The CEO of ALESA, Felipe Cosmen, said that the new public transport ticket system will be based on a prepaid card system similar to the London Oyster Card, which users can top up online or via smart phones and which will have no expiry date.

Cosmen was addressing a question and answer session earlier today.

The cards will be distributed for free for the first year (between March 2015 and March 2016). Cardholders will pay 75c every two hours they use the bus service.

There will also be the option to buy tickets on the buses themselves, at a cost of €1.50 for every two hours, going up to €2 per trip during the summer months.

Special bus passes will also be available- weekly passes costing €2 will be available for children and the elderly, monthly passes costing €26 will be available for adults and 90-day passes costing €55 will be available for students. The current option to buy a ticket that covers a day’s worth of bus journeys has been entirely scrapped. 

Bus ticket prices will be the same for Maltese residents and foreigners.

According to Cosmen, the idea is to promote and encourage people to buy tickets off-board. He continued by explaining that the prepaid card will also have the added benefit of recording information about the numbers of people who use specific routes.

“The card will be equipped with a technology that records how busy some routes are.” He said that this information would enable the company to assess specific routes and act accordingly to improve the service as needs be.

Night buses will continue to cost €3 per trip as they are not covered by the government subsidy awarded to Alesa.

It is as yet unknown how much the card will cost in March 2016. Cosmen said that should cardholders lose their card, they will be given a new card at a minimal cost of around €3 or €5, but that users will not lose any of the credit on their old card.

Cosmen also said that the third quarter of 2015 will see a new fleet of 142 new buses coming to Malta. This will bring the total number of buses in operation up to 360.

Buses will all be coloured green and white, and they will have two doors, one in the front and the middle. Older buses will have these doors installed. The buses will be 9.6 metres long and they will have low floors.

There will be 30 seats and four foldable seats, as well as space for 36 people standing on each bus. Cosmen said that the new buses are expected to add 3,000 new seats to the network, and that the new routes would increase the yearly mileage of the public transport system up to three million kilometres a year.

ALESA will start a door-to-door campaign in March, to distribute information about the new bus service.

The company expects to employ 300 people by the end of 2015. It plans to raise the number of bus drivers from 700 to 1,000 by the end of 2015, and it also plans to train its employees fully.

Cosmen also said that the call centre for the company will be opened more frequently than it is now, and that the buses will be equipped with a GPS system that will allow people waiting at bus stops to know when to expect the next bus. People can use SMS or apps to check how far the next bus is and how long it will take to arrive. The call centre will also be available for this reason.

The public transport company ALESA, the biggest transport system in Spain, started operating in 1738. The company currently has fleets in Morocco, USA, Canada, China, Thailand, Chile and Spain. Some of the lines in Spain operate to France and other European countries.