A friend of mine is on holiday in Malta and he sent me this picture of a couple of buses waiting time in the bus station at Valetta. In March next year Arriva will be taking over the bus services in Malta which are run at present by driver owners and if you think Stagecoach get lots of complains about drivers and bus services it's a drop in the ocean compared with these guys. Smoking and using mobiles while driving, rude and swearing at passengers, driving past bus stops, not turning up, throwing people of the bus for not having the right change, unhelpful to lost souls. These are some of the compains I have read in the Malta Times. But Arrive are going to replace the whole fleet with low floor, air con, fairly modern buses and employ all the bus drivers. Uniforms, ticket machines, code of conduct, etc. So if you have ever been to Malta and think the bus service is quite 'quaint' and the old buses are wonderful then you haven't long to get there and take loads of photos and go for some interesting if at times uncomfortable bus rides.
2 comments:
Arriva now owned by DB -the German state owned railway company is buying all the buse for Malta from a Chinese (presumably state owned )company called 'KingLong'
Sorry, somehow managed to comment on the wrong post before. Oops
King Long already have some buses in the UK and other parts of the world. We have a load here in Hong Kong and they are quite well put together. Search king-long.com or kinglonguk.com on the 'Net and you will see what they are all about.
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