Earlier last week, representatives from GUG and KSU together with Mr Anthony Briffa (Youth Coordinator for the Ministry of Gozo) held an extremely productive meeting with Transport Malta regarding the transport available for Gozitan students on the mainland. This meeting was scheduled after taking on board comments from various students who use the public transport provided, regularly.
During this meeting, the parties collectively expressed their concerns regarding the following issues;
- X1A was only available twice a week, on Monday and Friday Mornings.
- There was no direct rout to Mcast in Paola, were a significant number of Gozitan choose to continue their studies.
- Students were not arriving at Cirkewwa on time for the ferry.
- The X1 bus route was leaving Cirkewwa just a few minutes before the Ferry arrives at the terminal.
Both Organizations are delighted by the efforts made by "Transport Malta’, as they have taken on board our ideas and have assured us that the follow implementations are to be conducted:
- X1A will now operate twice daily (From Monday to Friday), early in the morning.
- X1A will consist of three stops, Skatepark, Materdei and Mcast Paola.
- X1 will be scheduled in a way that it arrives at Cirkewwa with 15 minutes to spear. Therefore students and workers will not miss the Ferry.
- Employees have been informed not to leave from Cirkewwa station if the ferry is close to docking.
- X1A will also operate twice a week on Friday evenings to take students from Msida to Cirkewwa.
GUG Mcast have also given recognition to the fact that Mcast Paola was included in the X1 route as they have been stressing the importance of such a service. These improvements are to be implemented by the New Year and the exact schedules are to be released by mid-December.
In conclusion all parties involved recognise the efforts made to offer the best possible public service transport for the Gozitan students and hope that these reforms boost the use of public transportation.