Malta's colourful vintage buses bow out

Typical and picturesque, aren't they?

Malta is replacing its fleet of characterful vintage buses with a more modern and efficient model but not all the islanders welcome the change.

The island of Malta does not exactly have a central bus station.

Instead, it has the Funtana tat-Tritoni, an open-air fountain in the middle of the capital city Valletta, which is home to a frenzy of bus-related activity.

Drivers buy - and in many cases, build, or inherit from their fathers - their own buses. They alone are responsible for running and maintaining them.

At night, they park them outside their houses and, in some cases, actually inside them.

The vehicles themselves are striking.

Since 1995, they have been painted canary yellow (in the 80s they were green and before that they were colour-coded by route).

But there the consistency ends.

Anybody can buy, build or adapt his own bus, apply for a licence and take to the road.

    Riding in one of Malta's buses can feel like travelling back several decades

The average Maltese bus, is 35 years old. Many have been around for 50 or even 60 years.

After World War II, enterprising Maltese men purchased old British Army vehicles, stripped them to the chassis and welded hand-made bus bodies on top.

Amazingly enough, many are still in operation today.

But not for very much longer.

Come 3 July, they will be replaced by a modern fleet of Arriva buses, under the banner of Transport for Malta, or TfM.