Councils call for changes in bus routes
Majority of councils critical of new public transport routes, describing network as long-winded and complain it does not serve particular areas in their locality.
The majority of councils replying to a questionnaire sent by MaltaToday were critical of the new public transport routes, describing the new network as either too long-winded or lamenting that it does not serve particular areas in their locality.
The government has already announced that it intends to change the routes. The Attard Council is complaining about the lack of a direct bus route to Valletta and that unlike before it now takes “more than an hour” to arrive to nearby Birkirkara.
Council executive secretary Marika Mifsud claimed that the Attard route is limited to only a few bus stages, with Misrah Kola being completely omitted, with residents having to take a 20-minute walk to Mdina Road to get a bus.
Birgu council executive secretary Christine Bonello claims that the service is less frequent than before, with buses leaving Birgu to Valletta every half an hour, instead of every ten minutes.
The Birgu council also complained that there is no Valletta route through the Hawli area.
Furthermore, the direct route from Birgu to Marsascala has been removed, while the direct route to Mater Dei hospital has been “drastically reduced.”
Gzira council executive secretary Rowena Borg reports that residents are complaining that unlike the previous service, the route that takes them directly from Gzira to Valletta has been removed.
“With the present service, residents have to take the circular bus 116 that will take them through the whole circular route up to the Sliema Ferries and from there, they will have to board the interconnecting bus to Valletta; else they have to walk to the bus stop in The Strand.” Borg claims that this decision is causing unnecessary inconvenience to the residents, particularly those residing at the locality boundaries towards Msida and Sliema. Moreover, this inconvenience will worsen on rainy days due to the flooded areas at the Strand.
St Julian’s mayor Peter Bonello says that only a few complaints have been received and these have been referred to Arriva and Transport Malta.
The Marsascala Local council has received numerous complaints from its residents regarding the service.
The council is now proposing a circular bus around Marsaskala to ensure that the entire locality will be within easy access of the transport system. The council is calling for an urgent meeting with Arriva and Transport Malta to discuss its proposals.
San Gwann councilor Anthony Mifsud Bonnici told MaltaToday that many residents want the routes to be reversed as these were before. Of the 25 randomly selected local councils, only six have replied to MaltaToday’s questionnaire.
Were the councils consulted?
With many people grumbling about the new routes, people have also been questioning the feedback given by local councils during the consultation period before the new routes were introduced by Transport Malta before the tender was awarded to Arriva.
It emerges that only 29 out of 58 councils in Malta participated in the public consultation held in 2009 through written submissions or by presenting written proposals.
Most councils contacted by MaltaToday have either claimed that no consultation took place, or contested the kind of consultation offered.
What is sure is that all Maltese councils were provided with an information pack on the proposed routes in January 2009. Councillors representing different parties in different Maltese localities confirmed this.
But only 22 councils turned out for a public consultation meeting to which all Maltese were invited. All Gozitan councils turned up for a similar meeting in Gozo.
22 councils, most of which had also participated in the public consultation meeting also provided their written feedback.
These included Zurrieq, Zejtun, Zebbug, Valletta, Tarxien, Swieqi, St. Lucia, Sliema, St Paul's Bay, St. Julian's, Rabat, Pembroke, Naxxar Munxar, Mqabba, Mgarr, Marsaxlokk, M'Scala, Ghaxaq, Gharghur Dingli, and Balzan.
The Kappara administrative council (which only came in to existance in 2010 and therefore could not participate in the public consultation) made strong representations with the authorities after the new service was introduced . The administrative council is now awaiting feedback to its representations.
Individual meetings were held seven different councils, namely Dingli, Kirkop, Mellieha, Paola and Rabat, Zebbug and Zurrieq. The Mellieha council had a total of four individual meetings on the new transport routes.
A Transport Ministry spokesperson told MaltaToday that “a good number of the suggestions where implemented and others weren’t possible due to passengers and road safety.”
But out of six councils who replied to a questionnaire sent by MaltaToday the consultation process was only deemed satisfactory by St Julian’s Mayor Peter Bonello while the rest either deemed the process unsatisfactory or inexistent.
Marsascala’s Executive Secretary Josef Grech claims that mayor Mario Calleja had attended to a meeting held in Paceville about two years ago but “could not find time to put forward his suggestions during the meeting.”
Grech questioned the nature of the consultation carried out by Transport Malta insisting that consultation meetings should have been held with local councils on a one-to one basis.
“This would have enabled the councils to first discuss with Transport Malta and then to discuss the proposals in a council meeting after which they could send a reply based on the feedback received from residents to the relevant authorities”.
The Attard local council was not even aware of the consultation process.
“To our knowledge, there were no consultations with our Council and the only information available was through the leaflets delivered by post to all households,” the council’s executive secretary told MaltaToday. The council did not submit any written submissions to the Ministry.
The Birgu council and Gzira councils also claimed that no consultation took place.
But St Julian’s mayor Peter Bonello – whose council participated by attending the public consultation meeting and sending its proposals in writing – insisted that “all local councils were invited before the new public transport routes were introduced.”
Feedback from commuters
Commuters who have contacted this newspaper have expressed mixed emotions on the new service operated by Arriva.
A Gozitan commuter who travels to Cirkewwa on a daily basis complained that on Monday, she tried bus number 11 from Sliema to Cirkewwa.
“Apart from waiting one hour, the trip took two hours... I talked to passengers and they confirmed that it takes always two hours now, instead of one hour under the previous service.”
According to this commuter, the Bugibba terminal was crowded and people were “clearly upset, screaming at the poor driver and kicking the bus.”
But the same commuter praised the service operated in Gozo itself .
“For Gozo, the bus service actually is a major improvement. There are buses from Rabat to Xlendi every hour from 5:45am till 10:45 – thumbs up for that one!”
Another commuter from Zebbug (Malta) complained about the removal of the direct service to Mater Dei. To get to Mater Dei from Zebbug, people are being driven to Marsa, where they are expected to change to Mater Dei.
“The buses might pollute less and so far the drivers are more polite, but the routes are crap… does Transport Malta or Arriva seriously expect our 80-year-old parents to change buses on their way to hospital?”
Another commuter described the grumbling of some people as “sickening and unbearable” especially in view of the fact that these were the same people grumbling everyday on the old service.
“I have used the old service as well as the new service and I cannot understand whether we are the same people who previously complained about the drivers, the lack of air conditioning and the quality of the buses, the lack of accessibility… and not to mention the pollution.”
A commuter from Marsascala praised the drivers for their politeness but lamented that she had to walk an extra 20 minutes to arrive home because the area in which she lives is not covered by the service.
As for myself, I kept using the service to arrive to work from Msida to San Gwann and am still arriving more than 15 minutes earlier than under the previous regime travelling from Msida to San Gwann. I also found it very easy to travel from San Gwann to Sliema, with the bus arriving only after five minutes on the stage.
But it took another commuter travelling from Zebbug more than two hours to arrive in San Gwann on Monday. The situation improved on Wednesday, when it took the same person an hour to arrive to the same destination.