Bus journeys in Malta three times longer than car trips, report says

The average bus journey in Malta takes three times longer than a car trip, even though most residents live just minutes away from their nearest bus stop, a new transport master plan reveals.

The National Transport Master Plan 2030 shines a light on the difficulties faced by Malta’s bus fleet, which has struggled to lure people away from their cars despite heavy investment in the service.

Although the bus network provides widespread access and public transport hubs are becoming increasingly popular, “Malta’s lack of dedicated bus lanes results in increased bus travel times and reduces punctuality in peak-hour periods”, the report says.

The report points out that, despite travelling at almost identical speeds during peak times, typical journey times for car and bus users are miles apart.

While a bus user only typically spends 22 minutes on the bus, “when the time taken walking to and from bus stops and the time taken waiting for a bus and transferring between buses are taken into account, the average duration increases to 40-45 minutes,” the report says.

Ultimately, the master plan adds, “the average duration of a bus trip (44 minutes) is over three times as long as a car trip (14 minutes),” with buses stuck in the same traffic as cars.

Unless action is taken, bus trips could take longer in 2030, the report says, warning “bus journey times will increase, bus service reliability and punctuality will deteriorate, and an undesirable modal shift from the bus back to the car will likely result”.

Most bus stops do not meet 2009 design standards

Malta’s short distances, with an average journey distance of just 6.1km (“much lower” than most other EU countries, the report notes), make it ideal for active mobility, while Malta’s “well-planned” bus network means bus users are well served, the report says.

Three-quarters of the population live within a five-minute walk of their nearest bus stop, usually no further than 450 metres away.

However, the public transport system faces several other woes.

Fewer than a third (29%) of bus stops have shelters, forcing users to wait in the blazing sun or pouring rain, while only a handful (4.5%) offer users real-time information displays.

And many bus stops still do not meet the design standards set out in national guidelines published back in 2009, meaning buses usually do not have enough space to safely dock as they stop to collect passengers.

Meanwhile, efforts to set up dedicated bus lanes, which would allow buses to bypass congestion, have been “quite limited in its extent and not without strong public reaction”.

The bus lanes that have been introduced are mostly on dual carriageway roads, the report says. However, buses now mostly experience congestion on single carriageway roads with on-street parking.

“Measures facilitating buses to bypass congestion here would necessitate the removal of on-street parking at peak hours,” the master plan says.

Adopt maximum, not minimum, parking limits

More broadly, the report argues that Malta has taken the wrong end of the stick when it comes to how it deals with parking.

Unlike many towns around Europe, which have implemented maximum parking limits, Malta has, so far, adopted the opposite approach, setting out minimum levels.

“This is contrary to what is happening in many urban areas around Europe,” the report notes, pointing to how “an oversupply of parking spaces with no restrictions encourages further car use”.

The master plan promises to reverse this, implementing maximum parking limits “to discourage excessive provision of parking spaces”.

Quoting a 2021 study, the master plan points out that only 2% of all car trips involve paid parking, with 72% of cars parking on the street and the remaining 19% parking in designated parking spots offered by their workplace or destination.

Meanwhile, planning measures forcing developers to offer a minimum number of parking spaces made little difference in busy areas.

“The increased supply of central area parking spaces has filled up quickly and the approach roads leading to these areas have inevitably become more congested,” the report notes.