Simon

Or at least I hope so. I have ben so perplexed by the comments I read here complimenting Malta's buses. For the locals, they serve absolutely no purpose. They are dirty, irregular and stop too early. At last it seems like they are being replaced. Specs for government subsidised low floor ones are out again. If anyone wants to see them, you'd better not leave too long. Though by Maltese standards, they will still be around in 10 years time. Well, we'll have to wait and see.

elvira

ohno - not the buses...we LOVED the buses. Maybe not slick like London double-deckers or modern like the Paris buses, but they have personality. Yup, uncomfortable, no seemingly-organized schedule (the bus depot outside Valletta has to be seen to be believed), but any bus company that has a shrine to Elvis in one of the vehicles, well, say no more.<BR><BR>I won't tell my sister about this; it'll ruin the holidays for her.

gail

Simon, <BR>Say it's not so! We loved the buses too. We could go everywhere we wanted to go, they were cheap, came frequently, and what personality! They were a highlight of our visit to Malta.

Patrick

Boo! Hiss! How can they get rid of the busses? I remember the one with the Elvis shrine, Elvira. Every bus has its own personality. And how can anyone say they don't run on schedule? They start one place and end up where they are supposed to. That's all that's important in Malta; if you have to keep to a schedule don't go there!

Pedro

Even I have a poster at home with those characteristic buses! OK, they were uncomfortable and maybe unpunctual but you can not see running objects like those anywhere in Europe. I wish government consider again their decision.

Simon

To the top !

Miles

They form part of the timewarp like state that Malta is in, only a soulless person would wish to see them go!

pam

"In Malta white-red-orange buses of the Public Transport Association are often seen. Buses are owned by the drivers or smaller companies, which are associated in the Public Transport Association. The bus system is a hub and spoke system with the main hub Valetta and a smaller hub in the city of Sliema. Cross connections are hardly existing. Bus times are not scheduled, only departure time is defined and also an estimated time of arrival at destination, but there are no coming through times for the stops on the way. This and the bus fleet, which is not meeting the requirements of the 21st century, are the main points of a study of summer 2000 about the Maltese bus system. In this report a new bus service divides in five regions has been proposed. Each region would be let on a 10 year contract to an operator. Also the existing arrangements for drivers are called "unlikely to be acceptable". "Their working hours are clearly unsocial, certainly unsafe, and in future probably illegal." (The Times (of Malta), July 24th, 2000)" <BR>public-transport.net/bus/Malta/Malta_in.htm <BR> <BR>