maltese bus experience by maltalive.tv

My experiences on the Arriva bus service in Malta……

There have been so many articles on this subject, or should I say a new writing craze. (I doubt that it’s possible to get writers block!)!

I will do my best not to mimic nor plagiarise previous articles that I have read and took note of mentally as they seem to be in the tabloids on a daily basis, But Arriva is presenting cannon fodder for those who step on and off them….in one piece!

I have only travelled twice since the “inauguration “of the Arriva bus service. My first experience was very brief yet satisfyingly amusing. I was returning from a short observational excursion through the mayhem we know as Paceville I will not go into detail with what I saw , instead I will go to the nearest bus stop opposite the local taxi service. As I waited patiently unlike the rest of the “fare payers” bearing in mind it was a Friday/Saturday 2am! Eventually the N13 Arriva bus arrived; you know the one that used to be the 62! (Changing of the buses is one thing, alas; changing numbers is….. another number!)

So for my first experience on an Arriva bus, that have plagued Malta since arriva, oops I meant arriving, once everyone had gone before me, not all travellers were in front of me I must add, to my surprise every-body boarded extremely quickly, then it was my turn to “mind the gap” between pavement and bus before entering the overly cold bus! To my amazement the bus driver said to me in English, but with a Polish accent, “you not have to pay, its free” really I said, how come? He replied in the same accent, “becoorse de teekit mashine is brookin”. I thanked him and went to my standing position, as the bus was packed to its full capacity! I arrived safely to my destination without a hiccup, but I heard a few from the passengers!

My first journey completed, and I was very content about not paying for standing for the duration!

Now for my second journey on the said bus service, that was to prove to be a little more confusing to say the least! I left my apartment in Sliema at 8:30am got the local newspaper and went to a café for my morning cappuccino and croissant and a quick browse through the newspaper, totally ignoring 2 more articles on the Arriva nightmare stories, in case they jinxed my next journey on one!

After finishing my coffee and croissant I folded my newspaper and placed it under my arm to reach into my pocket to get out the correct change(as I was informed the cost to travel was €1.50) for the bus fare and headed for the bus stop next to M&S where a crowd had gathered to my pleasure a bus arrived immediately upon my arrival to the bus top, the N13 (the one that used to be the….) I was the last to board as I was the last to arrive, when I entered the bus driver asked where I was going in broken English with a Polish accent, I said St Julians, he said €2.60 or €2.50 I can’t really remember as I was in shock when I heard the 2 part! (i.e. this was my first paying trip) I swiftly said; excuse me, how much, to which he replied, because you are a “FOREIGNER” I was appalled at this remark, was he being racist or discriminative or the two! I replied; I am a what? He said in the same English/polish accent “becoorse you’re a FOREIGNER! I said calmly that I am a European and we are in Europe! He replied you’re not Maltese so you’re a foreigner, I was baffled and felt offended to say the least! I am not a foreigner; I am a European in Europe…..again! And told him that I live here, and then he asked if I have a Maltese I.D. card, which I produced, He said why didn’t you just show it in the first place, I retorted; you didn’t ask me to show my I.D. you called me a foreigner and said that I have to pay the said inflated price becoorse I am a foreigner! So I paid the non-foreigner price and went to a vacant seat, maybe empty due to the fact that the foreigner not wishing to pay the high cost!

I continued my journey to St Julians totally stunned with the drivers remark! Surely this cannot be the policy for tourists that come to Malta, if so my advice would be to a family of 4 to take a taxi and have the comfort of a moderate air conditioning and definitely having a seat! I thought that tourism was an important sector to the Maltese economy! This will not help in the slightest, especially when they go home and tell their friends that you have to pay almost double the bus fare to what the locals pay! (Sorry for all the exclamation marks but they are needed!)

I continued my journey along Tower road at a slow pace due to the morning traffic. I was feeling hot and dehydrated even though the air conditioning was on at a temperature as cold as my freezer when I reach in to take out the ice cream on a humid and sometimes unbearable July evening. When I arrived at my destination I thanked the bus driver with a wry smile and stepped off into the heat of the non-air conditioned world too my surprise my sunglasses steamed up due to the change in temperature which impaired my vision and I could just about make out the pavement! (Now imagine a pensioner wearing glasses leaving the bus and the same happening to him or her)

I then continued on time for my scheduled meeting in St Julians. After my meeting about an hour later I headed back to the nearest bus top to use my day ticket as I had no option to purchase a one way ticket, “what goes up must come down” springs to mind. As I neared the bus stop there were at least 40 customers waiting for a bus. Then I noticed a “European foreigner” friend of mine we said hello etc. She said to me that she had been waiting for the bus to Valletta for 25 minutes so far, and not one bus had passed, she explained to me that it was her day off and that she was on her way to get her Maltese ID card as she had just got a job in a local restaurant and that she couldn’t afford to pay the Foreigner bus fare to go to work, especially as she works till 1-130am so she would have to pay for a day ticket to go one way, as there were no buses at that time of the morning for her return trip! Plus the cost of the “foreigner fare” was 40 minutes of an hours’ pay for time spent at work! I told her about my first experience with the foreigner bus fare scenario, which she totally agreed with me that we are European citizens in Europe, and it should not be one price for non-foreigners (whatever that means) and one for another…… foreign being! I said to her “so really you are applying for your Maltese bus pass not ID card”, to which she laughed and again fully agreed with me.

We waited 15 minutes together and then 2 N11’s appeared at once, one had enough room for 5 passengers the other did not even bother to stop as it was full! We waited another 25 minutes, and I decided that I would walk back to Sliema as I had a meeting at 12 o’clock, she decided to go to the beach instead of going to Valletta to get her “bus pass” as she was getting stressed because of the lack of service, we said are good byes.

I started to make my way by foot to my next meeting with my day bus ticket evaporating in my pocket due to the high temperature! As I got to Balluta Bay the first N13 appeared and did not bother to stop as it was full! The remaining part of my walk to Sliema I did not see another bus the rest of my footed journey that cost me €1.50.

I am thinking about getting a scooter to go to and from my meetings, but I will do some research first to see if there is “foreign road tax” “foreign fuel tax” “foreign insurance tax” etc. before I make my decision!

written by david@maltalive.tv
http://www.maltalive.tv