MaltaToday investigates: Free buses are precariously fuller amidst tourist influx

Just before the summer had even started a record 5.8 million passengers had travelled by bus across the Maltese islands.

This new record achieved in May, surpassed the previous milestone of 5.7 million passengers, recorded at the peak of summer in August 2019.

These figures from the Transport Ministry show an increase in patronage nine months after public transport was made free for commuters with a Tal-Linja card.

“In fact, it is expected that we will end this year with yet another record in the number of passengers carried,” a spokesperson for the ministry told MaltaToday.

But success, in this case, can also be the mother of failure if the frequency of service is not increased to match rising demand. It appears that the government and the bus company, Malta Public Transport, are not sitting on their laurels.

To avert overcrowding along routes passing through main tourist areas, four routes have had their frequency increased during peak hours while another 13 are being earmarked to follow suit in the coming weeks.

The ministry said that a recent internal exercise showed that 17 routes were identified as requiring additional capacity. “Four of these routes have already started and are currently operating with increased frequency during peak times.”

The scheduled public transport operator has already brought over 25 new electric buses to join the existing fleet. A further five new electric buses are expected to hit the road by the end of July. In total 320 new electric buses will be added to the service and eventually over 300 daily trips will be added to the existing network.

The Transport Ministry acknowledged what it described as a “slight increase in complaints” from the Northern part of the island during the summer months. But it also blamed “ongoing development and roadworks” for some of the mishaps.

Packed like sardines: consumers relate bus ordeals

Commuters who spoke with MaltaToday concur that buses are becoming more overcrowded particularly on already busy routes that are also heavily frequented by tourists.

Some commuters noted that the situation, although precarious has not reached a tipping point, despite the increased tendency of drivers to pack passengers like sardines.

“I still manage to travel around by bus on most days and to arrive at my destination, but soon we will reach a state where we will have to sit on each other’s lap,” a commuter told MaltaToday.

Others complained that they are being forced to struggle to retain their place in the queue as passengers rush to claim their place on already full buses.

“The crowd milling as ‘queues’ would be a misnomer at Msida on the Valletta outbound journeys often numbers about 100,” a daily bus user said.

The same commuter, who has been using buses for the past five decades, noted that since buses became free, the number of users has shot up.

“From an environmental point of view, we’re all happy about that, but travelling has become more difficult. The number of passengers now frequently crammed in buses harks back to the 1960s when buses were privately owned, and drivers did their damnedest to ensure that the absolute maximum of users boarded the bus to secure a higher financial intake.”

Another commuter noted that buses are usually full. “Sometimes the driver asks you to enter from the middle part of the bus where you don’t have to check in your card,” she said.

Regular bus users also reported that problems can be avoided by using the Tal-Linja app.

“The app is now highly optimised and very much improved from when I started using it in October 2016,” one commuter told MaltaToday.

Another regular user from Siema, confirmed that buses coming from Pembroke/ St Julians/Swieqi during the evening, especially after 5pm and even during the day “pass full”, but he usually manages to get to Msida or Valletta by using bus number 15 which departs from the Ferries.

A less experienced commuter reported that after he had been left stranded by two full buses arriving from St Julian’s, he decided to start walking to Msida only to notice that an empty bus arriving from the Ferries had cleared the stages by the time he arrived in Ta’ Xbiex.

Giving up

But some other commuters are giving up on waiting and resorting to the more expensive cabs to get to their destination.

“Yesterday evening the ferry didn’t work due to malfunction, so I waited for a bus at the Sliema Ferries, but after a while started losing the will to live, due to too many people on the bus stop and the slim likelihood of getting on the next bus, whenever it showed up (because its arrival time on the app kept getting longer and longer). So, I sucked it up and hailed a cab,” one irate commuter said.

Another said she has “given up taking buses from the Gżira front” and instead walks to Msida adding that “the times I did otherwise I was punished”.

Moreover, overcrowding is a major turn-off for some commuters.

“Lately we’ve started using our car again as the buses from Sliema have become so full that you are forced into close physical contact with people you don’t know,” another frustrated commuter said.

Some commuters also expressed their frustration at missed trips. Some even referred to bus trips announced on electronic bus schedules mysteriously disappearing.

“Along the Attard route, according to the schedule, there should be a bus every 10 minutes or so (from Dingli and Rabat). Invariably, they arrive every 30mins together. We are lucky there are some bus shelters along the route - but they’re made of glass and the heat is unbearable.”

Buses should be staggered, says Sliema mayor

Contacted by MaltaToday Sliema mayor John Pillow relayed feedback he received from residents on this issue.

Residents have complained that trips passing from Sliema are not staggered with many Valletta-bound buses (13, 14, 16, 21) passing through Sliema together every 20 minutes or so, with most of them being already full up leaving Sliema passengers stranded.

Sliema mayor John Pillow

“Waiting on bus stops after 9am can go up to 35 minutes,” according to a resident who complained to the mayor.

The problem can be addressed if these buses are staggered to avoid the accumulation of long queues at bus stops.

Moreover, buses bound for University and Mater Dei Hospital similarly “disappear for an hour” and then come together. Staggering these buses at 30-minute intervals could also help in addressing this problem.

Pillow contends that in summer Sliema should enjoy more frequent service since its population increases drastically with the number of tourists.

Meandering buses are the main problem, consumer lobby says

Many of the problems facing commuters this summer were already mentioned in a survey conducted by the Association for Consumer Rights in October 2022.

Over 1,100 persons from all over the Maltese islands and from all age groups participated.

Many survey participants noted that buses tend to be relatively frequent on tourist routes such as buses serving the Valletta-Msida-Sliema-St Julian’s-Pembroke line, and those serving the Cirkewwa-Mellieha-St Paul’s Bay-Mosta-Valletta line.

Catherine Camilleri, Association for Consumer Rights Malta

However, despite the relative frequency, many survey participants expressed frustration at repeatedly being left stranded at bus stops often for between 30 and 45 minutes as buses very often pass by already full.

For example, getting on a bus for St Julian’s from Bombi or Sa Maison is particularly difficult as the bus would leave Valletta terminal already full and hardly any of the passengers would start to alight before the Msida bus stops.

The phenomenon of being left stranded due to full-up buses was also frequently mentioned for buses that pass through highly populated towns and not necessarily because of tourists.

Many expressed frustration that buses from Marsaskala to Valletta arrive full and unable to take on additional passengers at Zabbar and Fgura bus stops.

Likewise, a bus from Birzebbuga would be full and unable to take on additional passengers at Tarxien bus stops. This particularly occurs during work rush hours.

Some persons also shared that they are put off from using the bus because they deem the overpacked buses a health hazard, the ideal recipe for catching infections like colds and COVID.

“The more towns a bus meanders through before reaching the final destination, the more the bus gets bogged down in traffic jam hotspots and the more it tends to reach bus stops already too full to take on additional passengers”, Catherine Camilleri and Pauline Azzopardi from ACR Malta told MaltaToday.

Smaller ‘express buses’ proposed

Based on the survey feedback the ACR is making several recommendations on how the service can be improved.

ACR Malta believes that the ‘full-up bus, bus-stop strand-ed passengers’ problem can be largely resolved with some key changes which do not require any exorbitant technology or capital cost.

Firstly, the authorities need to introduce buses that depart and have as their destination towns which currently rely mostly on buses passing through them on their way to or from other towns.

“For example, many more express buses should start de-parting and heading specifically to towns like St Paul’s, Mosta, Msida, Fgura and Zabbar”.

If the demand is not deemed to warrant a large bus at certain hours, then small buses should at least be assigned to depart and have these towns as their destination, particularly during work rush hours.

In this way passengers from, for example, Marsaskala would take an express bus to Valletta, while passengers from Zabbar would be able to take a bus that starts its journey from Zabbar.

“In this way, Zabbar residents would have the peace of mind that they will not be left stranded on bus stops because the Marsaskala bus will arrive ‘full-up’. And Marsaskala passengers would also appreciate not getting stuck in the traffic while meandering in vain through Zabbar and Fgura.”

This would also help shorten time journeys for all passengers involved – a critical improvement that many survey participants state is needed to convince them to use buses more often.

ACR Malta acknowledged that some buses that meander through towns are understandably needed to take passengers from one town to a neighbouring one.

“However, towns with a high population density or that are visited by many people, whether for leisure or work, should have their own express buses on a frequent basis to and from main destinations in Malta,” they said.

However, ACR also believes that bus frequency also needs to be tailored to demand.

“During work rush hours, most towns need express buses to main working hubs like Valletta, Sliema and St Julians, as well as to large industrial estates.”

Frequent express buses should be also added for various towns to coincide with the start and finish of visiting hours in main care institutions.

“One survey participant who cannot afford a private car described how to visit her mother, the bus journey takes her about 1 hour 45 minutes to arrive at St Vincent de Paule Residence and another one and a half hours to return home.”

Pauline Azzopardi, Association for Consumer Rights Malta

The problems mentioned in the survey are bound to aggravate as the number of tourist arrivals and third-country nationals coming to work in Malta continues to increase.

“So even if some bus routes have been recently increased, the full-up bus, stranded passengers’ problem has remained if not increased,” Camilleri and Azzopardi said.

More buses needed

The consumer rights lobby acknowledged that the authorities and the commercial bus company are doing their utmost to increase the frequency of buses and the number of bus routes.

However, the current number of buses and service frequency remain inadequate.

Moreover, while in 2010 the Maltese islands were served with a whooping 508 public buses, this number was slashed down to 264 buses when Arriva took over only to increase to 430 in 2023. Another 30 new electric buses will be placed in service in the coming weeks, bringing the total to 460.

“This is a big increase over the number of buses Arriva started off with, but still below the 508 buses that served Malta in 2010,” they said.

And while in 2010 Malta had one bus for every 820 persons, in 2023 it has one public bus for every 1,273 persons living in Malta.

One factor to be considered is that while the old Maltese buses’ capacity was about 54, today’s buses take about 74 passengers. Moreover, before Arriva buses were used on a day-in-day-out basis, so in effect there was never more than 50% of them on the road.

However, buses today have to cater for at least an additional 100,000 increase in population over that recorded in 2010.

“If one were to factor in the large increase in tourists experienced since 2010, one would find that each bus must serve an even bigger number of persons at any one time in Malta,” the Association for Consumer Rights said.

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