Malta’s heritage on wheels: The fight to save its buses

DW (English)

Malta’s unique buses, once everywhere, ferried locals and tourists alike. Each built from imported lorries, no two alike, reflecting drivers’ personalities. Now few remain, lovingly restored by specialist coachbuilders.

Transcript

00:00What made Maltese buses cultural icons?

00:03I cannot explain because it's something that I have been experiencing since I was a little boy.

00:09A once ubiquitous symbol of ingenuity and engineering now nearly vanished.

00:14You will not go anywhere in the world and you will see a Maltese bus.

00:18Restored with love by people with a passion for them.

00:22This is the story of Maltese.

00:30Hi, my name is Etienne Falzon. I am 50 years old.

00:33This is my bus. It's a 1950 Bedford. Our nickname is Bayadera.

00:39Bayadera is one of the few surviving examples of Malta's unofficial ambassador, the Maltese bus.

00:45Back in the day, these buses were the very lifeblood of the country's transportation,

00:50ferrying locals and tourists alike long before cars became the de facto mode of transportation.

00:56From 1814 to 1964, Malta was a British colony.

01:02In the early 1900s, a few buses were imported into Malta, primarily from England.

01:07But it was only after World War II that these gems of Maltese transportation were born.

01:13With limited manufacturing capacity, local innovation led to the invention of the Maltese bus.

01:19Each bus started out as a lorry or decommissioned military vehicle imported from England.

01:25Maltese coachbuilders converted them into full-fledged buses, building each by hand.

01:31Buses were privately owned, often by drivers themselves, and no two looked alike.

01:37With cabs of various makes and coaches built to the owner's specifications,

01:42each bus had its own unique personality.

01:44And till the early 70s, buses were also painted to reflect the route they plied.

01:49The Odin, these people, they didn't used to recognize numbers, so they painted the bus.

01:57Each color of the village it was.

02:02Balladera has been in Etienne's family for generations.

02:06He began driving the bus at 19.

02:08With drivers themselves usually owning the Maltese buses, they took special pride in their upkeep.

02:14A bus that looked nice could mean more passengers.

02:17And the driver-owner system meant buses weren't mass-produced.

02:21Instead, they were personalities on wheels.

02:24I like the noise of the engine.

02:27The noise.

02:27The noise of the engine is something that I cannot explain,

02:33because it's something that I have been experiencing since I was a little boy.

02:38With each bus dedicated to a specific route,

02:41drivers like Etienne tended to know their passengers quite well.

02:46People used to use us going for work, going for shopping,

02:50and things like that.

02:53So you used to get friends with people coming with passengers.

02:59So you miss them.

03:01Eventually, calls for progress and modernization

03:04signaled the death of Malta's quirky buses.

03:07In 2011, mass-produced King Long buses from China took over.

03:12Traditional bus owners were encouraged to give up their vehicles.

03:15By then, all painted a standard yellow in exchange for money.

03:19And pieces of Malta's transport history simply rotted away.

03:24While Etienne didn't give up Balladera,

03:27the bus rusted for several years until he finally decided to restore it.

03:31And it all happened at Skarnief Garage,

03:36one of Malta's last few remaining coachbuilders and restorers.

03:40Hi, Franz. Hi, Mauro. Hi, Moteo.

03:44Okay?

03:44Hi.

03:47Mauro and Francis Attard have a passion for preserving old Maltese buses,

03:52painstakingly rescuing them from the brink of extinction.

03:55Francis has been in the business for over 30 years.

03:58When I started with Skarnief, I built the first truck in the 1990s.

04:06I did the shape myself.

04:08I built everything myself by hand.

04:10And I started the first coach.

04:14While building and repairing low-floor buses is their bread and butter,

04:18it's restoration projects that truly require patience and ingenuity.

04:23Rebuilding a single bus can take around 18 months.

04:26There's nothing that we can buy completely ready and just install it.

04:32So everything is going to be done manually and created.

04:40Even sourcing taillights involves resourcefulness.

04:45So they used to be of a car, and then they were fitted in a bus.

04:49So it's not just something, I have a Thames, and these are the lights of the Thames.

04:53That's where they do them unique.

04:54Every curve and panel is shaped by hand,

04:58echoing an era when bus building involved as much carpentry as engineering.

05:03The aim is always the same.

05:04Now the philosophy and how we are restoring them

05:08is to get the original body into shape and available to the people.

05:16Seeing them gone, scrapped, with no use at all,

05:19it's something that hits you a big time, you know.

05:22With the buses once such a beloved part of Malta's cityscape,

05:26the calls for them to be resurrected have grown louder.

05:29Today, more old buses are being restored and put back into service as tour buses,

05:35giving people a taste of what once was.

05:37For Francis, coach building is his profession.

05:42For his son Mauro, it's a hobby driven by passion that he hopes to pass on to the next generation.

05:48And for owner-drivers like Etienne, preserving a piece of Malta's heritage is key.

05:53I am still happy that I saved this bus, you know, and we are still using it.

06:02After all, as Francis says,

06:05But it is very good, too. It is the story of Malta.

06:10Malta's buses, more than just wood, steel, and paint on wheels.

06:15A symbol of a country's ingenuity,

06:17and an enduring legacy of a time when the results of craftsmanship and creativity

06:22carried not just passengers, but the hopes and dreams of the Maltese people.

06:28Malta's buses, more than just wood, steel, and more than just wood, steel, and more than just wood, steel, and more than just wood.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended