It’s disgraceful! On Saturday we spent a lovely evening in Birgu graced by the company of many writers from around the Mediterranean countries thanks to Inizjamed. At 9:40pm we left the event to sit on the bus stop at the Birgu terminal across the road to where the event was held. The aim was to get the 10:00pm bus. At 10:30pm we were still sitting on that same bus stop!
Before attending this event we checked the online summer bus schedule at www.atp.com.mt which said there would be a route bus at 10:00pm from Birgu to Valletta. We also asked the bus driver who brought us to Birgu if there was a 10:00pm bus. He confirmed that there would be a 10:00pm bus leaving the Birgu terminal at 10:00pm headed for Valletta.
At 10:30pm we were stranded! We went back to the venue of the event, by which time the guests had begun to leave, to ask for a lift to Valletta. We got a lift to Valletta and wanted to file a report for a missing bus with the person in the Valletta booth at the terminal. We were told that to file a report we had to leave our contact details and the details of the case after which we would be called to a transport tribunal at 4:00pm on a stated date to provide a verbal report before the tribunal. The person in charge in Valletta also pointed out that should this happen again we were to call on 21231216 immediately. This number will get you in touch with the Valletta booth at the terminal. One look at an old bus ticket we had confirmed that this number is not printed on bus tickets, however we were encouraged to use this telephone number.
We have no intention of attending at any transport tribunal since we believe that the enforcement of routine checks, accountability, responsibility and abiding by scheduled route times is not within the commuter’s responsibility.
Rebbecca Borg and David Pisani - Birkirkara
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