The General Workers’ Union said it was expecting Transport Malta to shoulder responsibility for the problems within the public transport sector, instead of lumping all the blame on Arriva employees.

In a statement, the Union said that while there was room for improvement, it could never accept the arguments brought forward by Transport Malta that Arriva’s employees were solely to blame for the shortcomings of public transport.

“The routes and bus times were designed by Transport Malta, who paid thousands of euros in consultancy fees. They’re not the responsibility of the bus drivers.”

“There have been complaints about the routes since the beginning – it was clear it was flawed from the start. Several months had to pass before a solution to the problem was found.”

GWU added that the government had set up a task force to solve the problems related to public transport.

“How efficient that task force has been in solving the problems in the present system is up to bus passengers to decide.”

“It is clear that there need to be drastic changes to the system. However, the vast majority of Arriva’s employees are doing their very best to provide a good service.”