Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503368
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 JULY 2023 NEWS unbearable." Buses should be staggered - Sliema mayor Contacted by MaltaToday Sliema mayor John Pillow re- lated 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 passen- gers stranded. "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 ad- dressed if these buses are stag- gered to avoid accumulation of long queues at bus stops. Moreover, buses bound for University and Mater Dei Hos- pital similarly "disappear for an hour" and then come togeth- er. Staggering these buses at 30-minute intervals could also help in addressing this problem. Pillow contends that in sum- mer Sliema should enjoy more frequent service since its popu- lation increases drastically with the number of tourists. Meandering buses are 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 had partic- ipated. Many survey participants noted that buses tend to be relatively frequent on tourist routes such as buses serving the Valletta-Msida-Sliema-St Ju- lians-Pembroke line, and those serving the Cirkewwa-Mell- ieha-St Paul's Bay-Mosta-Vallet- ta line. However, despite the relative frequency, many survey partic- ipants expressed frustration at repeatedly being left stranded on 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 Julians from Bombi or Sa Maison is particularly difficult as the bus would leave Valletta terminal already full and hard- ly 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 high- ly-populated towns and not nec- essarily because of tourists. Many expressed frus- tration that buses from Marsaskala to Val- letta arrive full and unable to take on additional passen- gers 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 over- packed buses a health hazard, the ideal recipe for catching in- fections like colds and COVID. "The more towns a bus mean- ders through before reaching the final destination, the more the bus gets bogged down in traffic jam hot-spots and the more it tends to reach bus-stops already too full to take on additional passengers", Catherine Camill- eri and Pauline Azzopardi from ACR Malta told MaltaToday. Smaller 'express buses' proposed Based on the survey feedback the ACR is making several rec- ommendations on how the ser- vice 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 specifical- ly to towns like St Paul's, Mo- sta, 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 resi- dents 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 pas- sengers would also appreciate not getting stuck in the traf- fic while meandering in vain through Zabbar and Fgura." This would also help shorten time journeys for all passen- gers involved – a critical im- provement 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 understand- ably needed to take passengers from one town to a neighbour- ing 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 bus- es to main working hubs like Valletta, Sliema and St Julians, as well as to large industrial es- tates." 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, de- scribed how to visit her moth- er, the bus journey takes her about 1 hour 45 minutes to ar- rive at St Vincent de Paule Res- idence and another one and a half hours to return home." The problems mentioned in the survey are bound to aggra- vate as the number of tourist arrivals and of third-country nationals coming to work in Malta continue to increase. "So even if some bus routes have been recently increased, the full-up bus, stranded pas- sengers' problem has remained if not increased," Camilleri and Azzopardi said. More Buses needed The consumer rights lobby acknowledged that the author- ities and the commercial bus company are doing their ut- most 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 Arri- va took over only to increase to 420 in 2023. "This is a big increase over the number of buses Arriva start- ed 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 of about 54, today's buses take about 74 passengers. However, the lower number of buses, albeit with a slightly higher passenger capacity, to- day still must cater for at least an additional 100,000 increase in population over that record- ed in 2010. "If one were to factor in the large increase in tourists expe- rienced since 2010, one would find that each bus must serve an even bigger number of per- sons at any one time in Malta," they said. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt John Pillow Pauline Azzopardi