Working and wages as bus driver in Malta

That article in the Herald isn't exactly a great endorsement of the Maltese and their government, is it?

The canny Scots obviously came to the conclusion after performing basic due diligence, that they didn't want to touch it with a bargepole. Probably a wise decision. I bet Arriva wish they had been more thorough, losses of €70 million in less than three years. OUCH.

It's strange that they were even considering a bid given their close connection to Arriva. Were the Maltese Government offering something they didn't offer Arriva? I don't personally see the Government having some involvement in the public transport system being a bad thing, especially in maintaining the affordable prices. In the UK most cities effectively have one service provider which invariably pushes its prices up above the inflationary rate, so if the Maltese Government are imposing some form of price control then I think that's a good thing but also a factor in foreign companies wanting to invest. Seeing as the Maltese Government didn't respond we only have the side of a company that didn't get what it wanted.

On a side note, when I was over in November there was an english bus driver who got so wound up that I thought he was going to drive us off the cliffs at Dwerja. He seemed very pleased with himself when the passengers climbed off shaken by his hair-raising driving.

Pig Ear wrote:

It's strange that they were even considering a bid given their close connection to Arriva. Were the Maltese Government offering something they didn't offer Arriva? I don't personally see the Government having some involvement in the public transport system being a bad thing, especially in maintaining the affordable prices. In the UK most cities effectively have one service provider which invariably pushes its prices up above the inflationary rate, so if the Maltese Government are imposing some form of price control then I think that's a good thing but also a factor in foreign companies wanting to invest. Seeing as the Maltese Government didn't respond we only have the side of a company that didn't get what it wanted.

On a side note, when I was over in November there was an english bus driver who got so wound up that I thought he was going to drive us off the cliffs at Dwerja. He seemed very pleased with himself when the passengers climbed off shaken by his hair-raising driving.

There are currently around 77 bus providers in the UK. Most cities have more than one provider and are paid subsidies to continue running uneconomical services.

The Malta government have doubled the subsidy that they were paying to Arriva and have increased the proposed bus routes.
They do have a record of interfering and changing the criteria and then blaming the bus company when things don't work.
There are lots of things that could be done to improve the bus system but without proper traffic management the bus service will always play second fiddle to the car.
This is a small island and perfect for a  car free, integrated rail/tram/monorail system but sadly much too late to start construction.

Terry

"if the Maltese Government are imposing some form of price control then I think that's a good thing"  only if they can afford it  - and with the massive corruption and tax evasion  - they cant.....!

Fair enough. I was living in Gozo when Arriva arrived and despite the teething problems it opened up the island to us, where before we'd had to rely on our feet. From what I understand there is a divide between the service on Gozo and the one on Malta though. When I came to Gozo in November the buses were still very punctual and the prices reasonable.

My knowledge of the buses in the UK is purely limited to using them and seeing their prices go up expanentially year on year (400% in Brighton in the last 10 years). I've lived in Brighton, Bristol, Hull, Portsmouth and Winchester and in all of those places there was only one main bus provider with secondary services that covered specialised routes as opposed to real competition.  As to subsidies that is a common factor amongst public services run by private companies (see the railways), but it baffles me as why pay a private company to run a service who will then make a profit for their shareholders? Essentially the tax payers are subsidising shareholder profits. Of course in relation to Malta it would seem the experience of the private sector is required to shape the infrastructure.

But Monorails, cable cars, trams - all of these options would be great if unlikely to happen.

The new Spanish company came into effect in January this year i think - prior to that the gov operated the buses when Arriva pulled the plug...... -  what is the opinion so far of the NEW service and their performance so far.

Hi spandy61,

@everyone,

I created a new topic with your post here as you were off topic on the cost of living in Malta thread.

@spandy61 > this is your topic as you were the first who started to talk about bus driver in Malta. Please do not hesitate to ask more questions here.

Thank you.
Christine

apart from the two unions figthing over who they think should represent the bus drivers havent really noticed a huge difference
though there are some newish buses and i heard a londoner bellow up the coach move well back to people wasnt expecting that cause usually they shout it in maltese and you see all the english on board think it doesnt apply to them lol

tearnet wrote:

There are lots of things that could be done to improve the bus system but without proper traffic management the bus service will always play second fiddle to the car.

It's a classic Catch 22 situation though. The biggest problem is the congestion on the roads, and crap roads at that. With the current road infrastructure and the massive number of vehicles on the road, it's impossible to run an efficient bus service.

IF you could persuade a large percentage of the Maltese to give up their cars and use public transport, the quality of the bus service would increase substantially. Which would then persuade even more people to use it. But how do you convince anybody with a car on Malta to use a bus service with as bad a reputation as the one we have here?

Checkmate, there are no more valid moves.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/mobile/view … rds.563408
More info to come

What happened to those posts by redders_61 about Health & Safety? Were they deleted? Or did I imagine them?

I did reply to all this but it seems to be lost somewhere. rather than repeat myself it is quite simple if you don't like the way the maltese drive (or spainish, greek, portugese et al) don't bloody live here/there. if you want safe then go back to the UK. simples. (Elf n bleedin safety rubbish)

lmao I just said grazi and ciao to the bus driver to which she replied "see ya mate" lol

Excellent, I thought I had gone mad. I'm sure Toon replied to you too. I had just finished typing in a rather long reply to you, you hit a bit of a nerve with those posts and I wasn't too happy. I was just about to post it when I realised they had gone. I saved the text though, below is what I had to say.

redders_61, let me tell you a wee story son.

Several months ago I was on my way up to Mellieha in the car. I had just gone through the roundabout at Xemxija church, the one where the fire station is. Absolutely nothing in front of me as I go down the hill, but there is a line of traffic coming towards me on the opposite side of the road. At the head of that line of traffic is a massive lorry. Just as we are about to pass each other, he starts veering towards the centre of the road. I just managed to pass him before he crossed the white line in the middle of the road. When I looked in my rear view mirror a few seconds later, he was at least 5 or 6 feet across that white line on the wrong side of the road, on my side of the road. Fortunately as well as having nothing in front of me, there was nobody behind me.

I don't know if you know that particular stretch of road, just before the exit for Mistra Bay, but there is absolutely nowhere you can go, there is no pavement on the left hand side, there is no ditch or field you can drive off into, at the edge of that piece of road is a massive wall, like they cut through the side of a cliff. If fate had decided that I was a couple of seconds later leaving the house that day because I forgot to pick up my wallet, or realised I didn't have my phone in my pocket, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this message. I would be dead. Going downhill immediately after that roundabout I would have been doing at least 40mph, there was a clear road in front of me, the lorry must have been doing at least 30mph. A 70mph head-on collision, a small car against a huge lorry, the probabilities are I would be in a box pushing up daises right now.

Why did the lorry driver decide to swerve into the middle of the road? He was probably sending a text message, or reading an interesting tweet. I see it hundreds of times every week, even by bus drivers. But hey, that's the fun and excitement of driving in Malta eh? Thrills and spills thrown in for free. Health & Safety, who gives a shit about that eh?? That's for pussies.

Good luck the next time you cross the road redders_61, and continued luck on the buses, for you and all your close friends and family. Don't worry, if a driver runs you over at 45mph while you're crossing the road because he's too busy looking at his phone, I'm sure the medical treatment you receive at Mater Dei will be exceptional. And if you don't survive, fear not, we'll all leave lots of messages in the comments section of the Times Of Malta for you. "Oh Madonna, another tragic loss on our roads", "RIP, so sad for all his family", "Sending all our prayers for him tonight".

And hey, at least you'll have had lots of fun adreneline-packed days in Malta while you were alive.

On An Island wrote:

we'll all leave lots of messages in the comments section of the Times Of Malta for you. "Oh Madonna, another tragic loss on our roads", "RIP, so sad for all his family", "Sending all our prayers for him tonight".

And hey, at least you'll have had lots of fun adreneline-packed days in Malta while you were alive.

im sure someone will also mention how we should deport you lol

luckily though the number of deaths is pretty low compared to the amount of accidents so um sure youll be ok

yes lower death rate due to lower speeds. my former malti girlfriend taught me to cross the road here...just walk out in front of the cars and they stop...I kid you not. not that I ever do that but she does all the time

yes I think its normal for Brits to think the way you do...as they say if EU was one nation the Brits would be the police force.

robpw2 wrote:

so they would teach you how to drive as well ? thats hillarious ..

With Arriva it was like this, the new vacancy says "valid European category D license" ... so let's at least hope this is a mandatory requirement, not a nice-to-have feature ...

my fave bus/coach story of all time was in Kardamena on Kos island. as I live and breathe this is entirely true....end of our 2 week holiday and having day flight booked, coach due to pick us up at 11am from accommodation. 11.11 he arrived and then raced like a banshee, unfortunately on a blind bend he met a police car coming the other way. The cop nearly ended up in the ditch and was not best pleased. He came to the door of the coach and started shouting at the driver and we thought he was going to shoot/arrest him. however (our rep spoke greek so gave us a running commentary as we were sitting next to her) the driver explained that there were 2 coaches. They were doing half the resort each and in a race to get to the airport first and the loser would buy drinks for a week. He further pointed out who the driver of the other coach was and that he and the Cop were sworn enemies....at this point the cop ran back to his car, did a squealing 3 point turn. put his lights and siren on and gave us a police escort at break neck speed to the airport so our driver would win.

cant quite see that happening in blackpool/southend etc lol

I too noticed that some apparently irresponsible posts had been removed. I think 'redders' is on a 'wind up' here.

AND JUST LIKE ABUSE IT CONTINUES.  OR A BUS....EVEN

robpw2 wrote:

luckily though the number of deaths is pretty low compared to the amount of accidents so um sure youll be ok

There must be 15 or 20 buses go up that road to Mellieha every hour, it's the main route north. Imagine if one had been driving 20 or 30 yards behind me, packed full of tourists, squashed in like sardines. The story wouldn't just have been on the Times Of Malta, it would have been on the BBC 6 O'Clock News. It would have been carnage.

But hey, that's what makes Malta so much fun eh?. Health & Safety, bah humbug, a load of nonsense.

What a strange attitude to life some people have.

Did you have a good chuckle at this too redders? Elf & safety, who needs it.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi … ent.563294

It is obviously not on the horrendous scale of Hillsborough 15th April 1989 (96 RIP) but for me there are similarities.

Mick, it actually crossed my mind to mention Hillsborough in my reply to redders. But I thought about it and decided not to.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi … oar.563567

Amazingly enough, no blame is given to the absolutely shite standards of driving in Malta. Let's find some other reasons for it, potholes in the road and more sophisticated cars.

You couldn't make it up. Only in Malta. 

€44 million last year, €48.5 million in 2013. WOW 

ITS A LAWLESS SOCIETY RUN AND RULED BY PEOPLE WITH GUNS.

There's one obvious reason for the increase - SMARTPHONES!!

How many people have one now compared to 6 or 7 years ago? And how many drivers use one every day while driving here? Sending tweets and emails.

About 6 months after I bought by car, somebody drove up my arse one day. 3 weeks later, it happened again. Twice in 3 weeks!! I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of the accidents in Malta were caused by those bloody things.

Evening,
               The company was McGill buses based in greenock Scotland,  but there was no transparency, they stated within 3 years they could operate all routes without subsidy if given the go ahead, also the managing director of mcgills was in charge when arriva stepped in to operate routes that the Maltese government requested due to the fact that driving standards were horrendous on the island at that time..., as stated in previous posts, also it was a case of one vehicle one owner, in this day and age there needs to be organised public transport, especially on an island classed as a major holiday destination, and the Maltese government tried quite rightly to address at the time, unfortunately they wanted total control over costs and routes, instead of letting one transport company do what they do best, provide a sustainable network of routes that would meet the needs of the local community and also address the needs of tourists that would year after year provide much needed revenue to support local businesses.
That being said, good luck to any transport company that might try to make that happen, arriva got out because they were losing shed loads of money at that time, mcgills might look again in the future, but only on their terms, FYI, they started with 25 minibuss 12 years ago, they bought out arriva Scottish operations for 10 million, and now are Scotland's largest family owned operator, when the Spanish operator walks away you might look again at mcgills....

You replied to a post from two years ago.

I know,lol...

Evening, old topic I know, but wondering if any update on this, the previous posts are very accurate, has it all worked out over the years now?

I don't think any bus operator will make a total success of a good service until the main problem is solved and that is there are just far too many cars on the roads , it really is that simple. And until the government can somehow find a solution to this growing problem I'm afraid we are just going to have to put up with the gridlock.

The bus service here on Gozo is great, where we live we have two buses an hour compared to one a week in Northamptonshire.

GozoMo wrote:

The bus service here on Gozo is great, where we live we have two buses an hour compared to one a week in Northamptonshire.

Better than some other awful place is not the same as "great" but yeah that does sound better than many other rural locations in Malta

Yes I was commenting on the situation on Malta itself. I'm also on Gozo, living in ghanjselem and have the choice of 3 different buses to take me up to Victoria. Though I often walk it, takes around 45 minutes, and get one of the buses back. The drivers are also a lot less stressed , certainly a lot different from over the water.

volcane wrote:

GozoMo wrote:

The bus service here on Gozo is great, where we live we have two buses an hour compared to one a week in Northamptonshire.

Better than some other awful place is not the same as "great" but yeah that does sound better than many other rural locations in Malta

On Gozo the bus service really is 'great', very rarely late and it is unusual to not be able to get on a bus because it is full, as is often the case in Malta.

Ray

I have to agree about the bus service here, better than Malta and usually on time as previously stated, a bus every 45 mins, only problem for us is we have to avoid the ferry peak times as the 303 gets packed. Still miles better than we had in the UK and the cost is reasonable and will get better with residency.
Ray

Hi my name is ryan im working in qatar for 8years up to present,if theres any company that need bus driver im willing to transfer but pls provide me a visa and ticket.thanks for help