Updated 16:50

The nine buses that were pulled out of service due to their roadworthiness coming into question have been put back into service after passing VRT testing. 

Earlier on Friday, Malta Public Transport (MPT) announced it had taken nine of the 11 buses named in a judicial protest off the road at the request of Transport Malta, but the company says that this was done purely as a procedural measure, despite them being roadworthy.

Of the other two buses mentioned in the protest, one was already off the road while it underwent repairs, and the other was a training bus used to train new drivers, meaning it was never in service.

However, in a follow-up statement, the company announced that the nine vehicles in question had all been tested at a third-party vehicle roadworthiness testing facility in the presence of personnel from Transport Malta and MPT and passed. 

All of the buses in question had passed the full test, including the break test, the company said and "no dangerous deficiencies were noted at any point in time".

Some "minor faults" had been observed during the tests but these had all been rectified.

"The buses are therefore being put back in service with the approval of the Transport Authority," they said. 

"The company reiterates that it had no doubt that the buses are roadworthy and that therefore it is clear and very unfortunate that the allegations that have been made on the 9th of April are false, and the public can rest assured that Malta Public Transport takes the safety of its passengers, employees and the public in general very seriously."

Earlier this week a supervisor at MPT filed a judicial protest claiming that he was instructed to certify buses that were not roadworthy.

MPT vehemently denied the claims, saying that “the company would never allow buses that are not roadworthy to be put on the road”.

Speaking to Times of Malta, MPT general manager Konrad Pulé said the maintenance records and repairs of every bus were meticulously logged and dated in the company’s online system. This is the same procedure used in the other countries where the company operates, such as Spain and Cyprus, Pulé said.

It ensures that records are cross-checked by different individuals, from mechanics, and inspectors to supervisors, making it “very difficult” for checks and balances to be bypassed, Pulé said.

Maintenance records seen by Times of Malta suggest that several of the buses named in the judicial process were taken off the road for repairs at the time, before being returned to service days later once repairs were completed.

MPT general manager Konrad Pulé. File photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Pulé said that buses have built-in safety mechanisms to automatically flag mechanical faults such as problems with the bus’ engine, brakes and motor oil, among other things. Once any fault is flagged, it is immediately inspected by MPT’s technical team and withdrawn from the road until it is deemed roadworthy, Pulé insisted.

Meanwhile, each driver must carry out a routine inspection at the beginning of their shift to identify any latent defects, completing a checklist to certify that all is in order before embarking on their first trip of the day.

Pulé said that every bus is taken in for a thorough inspection every 35 days, regardless of whether any possible faults have been flagged or not.

“This means that some 18 buses are being inspected each night, as a matter of routine,” he said.

“Further maintenance works are automatically carried out every 30,000km,” he added.

Judicial protest claims are ‘misleading or outright false’

Addressing the claims made in the judicial protest, Pulé argued that many of the presented facts were either misleading or outright false.

One piece of evidence offered up in the judicial protest – a sheet listing the mechanical faults identified in a single bus – was incomplete, Pulé argues, pointing out that the list was photographed after an inspector had seen the bus, but before it had been attended to by a mechanic, making it appear as though repairs were not carried out.

The complete document, seen by Times of Malta, shows the names of several mechanics signing off on the repairs that were seemingly carried out.

MPT say that this completed maintenance form shows that repairs were carried out.

Pulé also argued that the WhatsApp chats presented in the protest, seemingly showing the supervisor being instructed to ignore necessary repairs, were taken out of context and misconstrued.

According to Pulé, this referred to minor repairs that do not have an impact on the bus’ roadworthiness, such as dents to the bus’ body. In such cases, Pulé said, buses are kept in service throughout the day and scheduled for repairs at a time when the bus is not in use.