WATCH: Desperate Passengers Crowd Maltese Bus Doors As They Try To Get To Work
Maltese buses may have banned people form standing up on board but these measures to enforce social distancing appear to have caused a fresh problem.
Footage from a bus terminus posted to social media shows several people crowded around a bus in an attempt to take one of the limited seats on board.
In another video, a woman can be seen trying to get off the bus but getting pushed back inside by a group of men who weren’t ready to wait for her to disembark lest someone else takes her seat.
And while this lack of orderly queuing risks defeating the purposing of Malta Public Transport’s new anti-COVID 19 policies, it does expose a reality faced by several people.
While some people can work from home or at least drive to the office, others have no other choice but to catch a bus, and if public transport vehicles are full up, they risk not getting to work on time. Indeed, Lovin Malta recently published a video of a driver explaining to a commuter that he let people stand up on board because they needed to get to work. Nevertheless, he was disciplined by Malta Public Transport for breaching the company’s new policies.
Besides banning standing passengers on board, Malta Public Transport has also installed perspex windows to separate bus drivers from passengers, instructed drivers to refuse to give change to customers who pay in cash and is fumigating the buses between shifts.
What should be done to alleviate the situation on buses?