Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/671725
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 27 APRIL 2016 MARTINA BORG A new mobile app will allow commuters to precisely find out how long they have to wait for their bus to arrive. Malta Public Transport chief executive Konrad Pule told a press conference that transponders on the bus will send information to the app every 20 seconds, which will then display the actual loca- tion of the bus. The app, available for free on Google Play Store and Apple Store, will also al- low commuters to plan their journeys – through criteria such as shortest distances and minimum bus transfers. The app will also display the user's account history and the balance of tallinja cards, and will allow users to top up their accounts through the phone. "We strive to run the ser- vices on time but things can happen along the route," Pule said. "This app gives passen- gers a tool to plan their jour- ney accordingly." He said that 40 million peo- ple travelled on public trans- port last year and that around half the population already has a tallinja card, only a year after it was launched. "The company has invested in technology and new buses and equipment as well as training for personnel," he said, adding that the com- pany was committed towards improving the product avail- able. News New tallinja app to monitor buses in real-time The new mobile app will allow commuters to check the real- time status of the bus they are waiting for BirdLife accuses 'biased' hunting regulator of misleading public TIM DIACONO BIRDLIFE Malta has taken the hunting regulatory body to task for claiming that it had presented scientific justification for this year's spring hunting season. "In the absence of a scientific argument, BirdLife Malta once again confirms that the Wild Birds Regulation Unit is acting in a pro-hunting lobby environment, probably leading to misadvice given out to central government," BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana wrote in an open letter to Prime Minis- ter Joseph Muscat. "This puts to question the very mission of the WBRU – of wheth- er it is there to legislate in favour of the conservation of the species, or in favour of pleasing the hunt- ers' demands to still hunt a spe- cies that is on its way to extinc- tion." Malta's spring hunting season will run until Saturday, with the government set- ting the total tur- tle dove quota at 5,000 birds. It announced this as a "conserva- tion measure", re- ferring to a reduc- tion from previous years' quotas of 11,000 turtle doves. BirdLife last week revealed that the European Commission has formally asked Malta to justify its decision behind its decision to open a spring hunting season in the first place. The eNGO said that its request came in light of a recent report by the International Un- ion for the Conserva- tion of Nature that shows that Euro- pean turtle dove populations have plummeted by 80% in the past 30 years. It added that WBRU head Sergei Golovkin was una- ble to provide scientific data to back up the decision behind setting a hunting quota of 5,000 turtle doves. The WBRU reacted by publish- ing its report on the outcome of the 2015 spring hunting deroga- tion, reports of turtle dove and quail migration studies con- ducted in spring and autumn in 2015, a scientific assessment of the conservation status of turtle dove and quail, and a detailed analysis of turtle dove and quail bags reported during the previ- ous autumn season, and minutes of Ornis meetings in which they were debated. However, BirdLife retorted that none of those reports were related to this year's spring hunting sea- son or provide scientific justifica- tion to permit the killing of 5,000 turtle doves. "We will continue challenging WBRU to put forward the scien- tific reasoning, if it exists, that justifies the decision."