Additional personnel to handle bus card registrations in Valletta

Malta Public Transport has confirmed that additional personnel will be deployed from today Thursday, to handle the sudden increase in registrations for the tallinja card.

A record number of 7,500 registrations have been processed in the last 24 hours.

In addition, a dedicated kiosk has been set up in the “Biskuttin” area in Valletta where registrations can take place. In this way, the main kiosk near Bay 1 in the Valletta Terminal will remain available for topping up and general information.

The company has also increased the amount of call centre personnel for the next few days to deal with any enquiries that may be made.

Transport Malta yesterday said it had been closely monitoring today’s launch of the new tallinja card system, after numerous reports poured in on operational issues faced by commuters particularly in Valletta.

“Transport Malta is sensitive and aware that such an overwhelming change brought about a number of challenges that need to be addressed immediately by the pperator to ensure improvement in the service. It is also aware of the huge number of late applications for Tallinja card over the last few days. In fact, over the last 24 hours, circa 7,500 people applied for tallinja card,” TM said.

Transport Malta also deplored the arrest of a Hungarian national earlier in the day, who was attempting to organise commuters into a single queue so that they could get their tallinja cards.

The Malta Public Transport Services have now been taken over by private bus operator Alesa. The new transport system is dependent on an Oyster-style passenger card for which passengers must register for, in order to be able to travel by bus. The only ticket on sale is a €2 per journey fare. Some 140,000 enrolled for the tallinja card, contrasting significantly with the previous 20,000 who took up the same practice with the Arriva transport company.

But teething problems once again saw a delay in the roll-out of the tallinja card, which meant that MPTS buses today gave tallinja card holders or others who applied for the card but had not yet received it, free rides.

“The operator has been asked to deploy more customer care officers primarily in Valletta to provide assistance in topping-up of tallinja cards and answer general queries. TM has also asked the operator to speed up the processing of the new tallinja applications to ensure these are received by respective applicants in the shortest time possible,” TM said.