The Story of the Malta Buses 1931-2014

The Story of the Malta Buses, 1931–2014 celebrates the transition of the public transport service from individual owners and drivers to Arriva. With over 500 buses, the service epitomised many of the contradictions of a Mediterranean people. Visitors found the  service quaint and frustrating: ancient buses, revamped, resurrected and reshaped, a rainbow of colours and a flair for decoration reflecting individual owners’ tastes and idiosyncrasies. Successive governments grappled with a seemingly intractable problem until membership of the European Union made an irrevocable case for privatisation that led to Arriva in July 2011 and the subsequent nationalisation of the service in 2014.