The number of people using the new public transport service was calculated using sensors placed in the doors of buses, according to the Transport Ministry.

“The counts relate to actual passengers using a bus,” a ministry spokesperson said when asked how the figures released on Wednesday had been calculated.

Statistics published by the ministry showed an increase of 22 per cent in bus usage last month when compared to September last year.

The figures showed that the new Arriva bus service carried 3.2 million passengers last month as opposed to 2.6 million in the same period last year.

Under the old system, passenger numbers were calculated by counting the tickets sold. In the new service, a passenger can buy one ticket and use it multiple times on different buses and routes. The spokesman insisted comparisons could be made between 2010 and this year. “In the previous system, a person using two buses to get to a destination bought two tickets and was counted twice.

“Today, a person buying one ticket to use on two buses is still counted twice because of the sensors on each bus.”

Given the change in routes, which in some instances has necessitated that passengers change buses to reach their final destination, the Arriva numbers may seem to be artificially inflated.

However, the spokesperson said this was mitigated by the fact that the new system also introduced direct routes between localities that never existed before.

“Under the old system, a good number of journeys were only possible using two buses while, now, a passenger can use one bus. In these cases, what before was counted as two passengers is now counted as one and that is where modal shift is obtained.”

The figures show that, in August, the peak of the tourist season, 3.7 million passengers made use of the new service, a rise of 27 per cent over the same month last year. The ministry did not provide a breakdown of passenger use on the various routes but separate statistics were computed for Gozo, where bus patronage rose by a whopping 371 per cent in September to 207,440 from 44,000 last year.