Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Public Transport in Malta

Lately I was invited to attend an exhibition launch in Valletta on a Friday at 8pm. I figured it could take till 9pm for the event to warm up, till 10pm to really get going and to fizzle out around 10:30pm

So I decided to take a bus to Valletta thinking I should be able to catch some 11pm bus on heading home. Unfortunately on arriving I confirmed with the driver that the last bus was scheduled to depart at 10:00pm !

This is naturally a huge setback for any tourist but also for us locals. It is also in contradiction to Malta's recent publicity encouraging people to make more use of public transport in order to safeguard the environment. If bus schedules can't even cater for a simple event in Valletta can you imagine how even more impossible it becomes to try and attend something in Mellieha!

Thankfully some kind tourists recently put pen to paper about this frustrating disservice. You can read their letter at this Times of Malta link "No night bus for major tourist attraction"

No small wonder that most tourists prefer malta car hire or making their own airport transfer arrangements!