Buses in Malta
The unique nature of the Malta bus stemmed from the tradition of local ownership of the buses by the drivers, and their historic practice of customising them.
In addition to a high degree of customisation, detailing and decoration, several Malta buses also had a unique appearance due to the practice of in-house maintenance, rebuilding or modifying of bus bodies in local workshops.
He formed the Malta Motor Omnibus and Transport Syndicate Ltd with his brother-in-law Joseph Muscat to operate the first bus service between Valletta and St Julians.
With the formation of the Traffic Control Board in 1931, greater regulation and discipline of the system meant that operators began to upgrade the appearance of their buses.
This association became responsible for the centralised day-to-day operational management of bus services, producing a unified timetable roster and basic livery, although this did not change the ownership arrangements for the buses.
[1] While the buses generally remain popular among tourists and nostalgic Maltese, the original system was infamous and unpopular with some parts of the local population who considered the service as inefficient and polluting, driven by drivers who were sometimes very impolite to passengers.
This resulted in a significant increase in private car ownership among the population, and today only one in ten trips are made via public transportation.
[2] One extreme case to note occurred on 29 June 2010, when a driver attempted to forcibly pull a Spanish tourist out of her seat and off the bus following a row over seven cents in change.
[4] Malta buses on public transport duties were seen in high concentrations at the main City Gate Square bus terminus at Valletta surrounding the Triton Fountain, from where the vast majority of scheduled routes departed.
In 1975 buses were painted green, and from 1995 vehicles carried in a yellow (lower) and white (upper) livery, relieved by a red band just below the window line.
Very early types of bus could still be found but no longer in service, with a front engine mounted in an extended bonneted nose, in the style of some conventional trucks.
Second hand imports from the UK had continued up to 2008, with some of the last examples being Alexander Dash bodied Volvo B6s deemed surplus after Stagecoach's takeover of Yorkshire Traction.
MaltaPost issued a set of 20 postage stamps to commemorate the withdrawal of service of the traditional Malta buses on 2 July 2011, a day before the restructure.
Released in November 2005, the report criticizing the existing model and arrangement between ADT and ATP, which had produced a very low utilization of buses and a decline of 50% in the number of bus passengers between 1979 and 2009.
This resulted in the end of the state-subsidized owner-operator model, which as of 2009 stood at 508 buses each with an average age of 35 years, and operated by over 400 independent licensees.
Passengers holding Maltese ID cards receive a 40% reduction of the price of their journeys due to subsidised fares, while non-ID card holders (including tourists) pay the full undiscounted fare, prompting the European Commission to launch an inquiry on whether the two-tiered price structure violates EU discrimination laws.
Their actions received some criticism, with politician Emanuel Delia accusing the drivers of attempting to sabotage services so that the new system would be abandoned.
[18] Further changes affecting 112 routes were announced in October by transport minister Austin Gatt, introducing more buses to Valletta and Mater Dei Hospital.
[21] The fires destroyed the buses and in one case caused extensive damage to some nearby vehicles belonging to MaltaPost, the country's postal operator.
By April 2014, three companies had submitted bids to operate the new bus services, these being Autobuses Urbanos de León, Gozo First, and Island Buses Malta.
[26] As of October 2014 the government has chosen Autobuses Urbanos de León, subsidiary of ALSA Group, as its preferred bus operator for the country.
[30] Malta Public Transport has invested extensively in modernizing its bus fleet making it safer, more environmentally friendly, and more comfortable.
Between 2014 and 2015, Malta Public Transport also had busses from the United Kingdom to compensate for a small fleet, Wright Eclipse 2s and Optare Solo SRs were leased from Dawson Group.
There were also some other notable busses in the fleet, such as ex-Arriva Optare Solos and locally built "Scarnif SLFs" in the early days of Malta Public Transport too.
Open-top bus operation on Malta was first proposed in the early 1990s, when several double-deck vehicles were imported from the United Kingdom by private company Garden of Eden.
The Transport Authority refused to license their operation as passengers standing on the top deck could reach a height over four metres, the maximum level allowed.
