Public transport use has increased substantially after Labour's measures, including free public transport and new buses.
Total public transport ridership rose from 48.05M (2017) to 67.24M (2023, +36.6% YoY — first full year of free PT) and continued climbing to 75.8M (2024, +12.7%), with August 2025 alone hitting a record-breaking 7.48M passengers (+10.5% YoY for that month). That is genuinely substantial — +57.7% across 2017-2024, with the gains concentrated in the free-PT era. But population grew ~24% over the same window (460K → ~570K), so on a per-capita basis the strengthening is materially smaller: 104.5 trips/resident/year (2017) → 121.6 (2023) → ~133 (2024) = +27% per capita across seven years. Substantial direction holds; the load-bearing magnitude is the per-capita figure, not the +57.7% headline. The NSO dashboard's Maltese-vs-Non-Maltese split is a flat 75/25 ratio applied uniformly across all years (not measured data), so it's not possible from public data to isolate whether Maltese-national ridership specifically rose or whether the increase is driven by non-resident growth.
Total public transport ridership rose from 48.05M (2017) to 67.24M (2023, +36.6% YoY — first full year of free PT) and continued climbing to 75.8M (2024, +12.7%), with August 2025 alone hitting a record-breaking 7.48M passengers (+10.5% YoY for that month). That is genuinely substantial — +57.7% across 2017-2024, with the gains concentrated in the free-PT era. But population grew ~24% over the same window (460K → ~570K), so on a per-capita basis the strengthening is materially smaller: 104.5 trips/resident/year (2017) → 121.6 (2023) → ~133 (2024) = +27% per capita across seven years. Substantial direction holds; the load-bearing magnitude is the per-capita figure, not the +57.7% headline. The NSO dashboard's Maltese-vs-Non-Maltese split is a flat 75/25 ratio applied uniformly across all years (not measured data), so it's not possible from public data to isolate whether Maltese-national ridership specifically rose or whether the increase is driven by non-resident growth.
We tested Bonett's claim against the NSO Transport Dashboard (PT Data Input sheet, annual ridership 2017-2023 by month and by ticket type), Malta Public Transport / Transport Malta annual ridership announcements for 2024 (75.8M trips, +12.7%), 2025 monthly figures (August 2025 = 7.48M passengers, +10.5% YoY), NSO population estimates for 2017-2024, and the dashboard's nationality-split column. The methodological question is whether the headline ridership growth reflects substantive policy work or mechanically tracks population growth.
Verdict lands at Mostly True because the direction is correct and the magnitude is substantial even after the population-growth correction. Headline +57.7% across 2017-2024, with continued growth into 2025. Per-capita +27% — still a real strengthening, with the bulk of the gain landing in the free-PT era (2023 onwards, when the YoY rates hit +36.6% then +12.7%). The Mostly True qualifier reflects that the framing's implied magnitude (the +57.7% headline) is meaningfully larger than the population-adjusted figure (+27%), and that the dashboard does not allow us to verify the Maltese-national share trend independently. The substantive PL credit-claim — that the free-PT measure produced a real ridership step-up that has now sustained across multiple years — is supported.
Did public transport use really increase substantially after Labour measures
The headline answer is yes — and the growth has continued into 2024 and 2025. Total ridership rose from 48.05M (2017) to 67.24M (2023), then to a new record 75.8M in 2024 (+12.7% YoY), with 2025 monthly figures continuing to break records (August 2025 alone hit 7.48M passengers, +10.5% YoY for that month). That is +57.7% growth across 2017-2024, with the bulk concentrated in the free-PT era (2023 onwards). The qualifier on Mostly True is that some of this tracks population growth: Malta's resident population grew ~24% across the same window, so on a per-capita basis the strengthening shrinks to roughly +27% — still substantial, but materially smaller than the unadjusted headline.
Total ridership — the headline series, 2017-2024
The trajectory is unambiguous. Ridership grew from 48.05M (2017) to 67.24M (2023, +36.6% — first full year of free PT) to 75.8M (2024, a fresh record, +12.7% YoY). That is +57.7% growth across 2017-2024. The bulk of the gains land cleanly in the free-PT era — 2023 alone added 18M trips, and 2024 added another 8.6M on top. 2025 partial data continues the trend: August 2025 was the highest single month on record at 7.48M passengers.
Per-capita ridership — adjusting for population growth
Malta's resident population grew approximately 24% across 2017-2024 (~460K → ~570K), driven by foreign-worker inflows. Some of the apparent ridership gain therefore tracks the larger population using PT, not a behavioural shift towards PT. The per-capita series isolates the behavioural component:
Per capita, Maltese residents took 104.5 PT trips/year in 2017, 121.6 in 2023 (first full year of free PT) and approximately 133 in 2024. That is a +27% increase across 2017-2024 — a substantive behavioural shift, with the bulk landing after free PT was introduced. It is materially smaller than the unadjusted +57.7% figure implies, because population grew sharply over the same window. The headline number flatters the policy work; the per-capita figure is the right metric for the credit-claim, and on that measure the strengthening remains substantial.
Why per-capita is the metric we have to use
The cleanest test of whether Maltese residents specifically changed their behaviour under free PT would be the ridership trend among Maltese nationals only — separated from the non-resident foreign-worker share. That data is not publicly available. The NSO Transport Dashboard does carry a Maltese / Non-Maltese column, but inspection of the values shows it is a flat 75/25 ratio applied uniformly across every year 2017-2022 (75.00% Maltese in every year, to the third decimal place). That is a model assumption, not a measurement. There is no published survey, ticketing-system breakdown, or NSO release that decomposes annual ridership by nationality of passenger.
Because the nationality decomposition is unavailable, per-capita ridership is the best proxy we have. Dividing total annual trips by total resident population (Maltese + non-Maltese combined) controls for the fact that a larger population mechanically takes more PT trips even if behaviour is unchanged. It does not isolate the Maltese-national share, but it does separate "more people using PT because there are more people" from "more people using PT per head". The per-capita figure (+27% across 2017-2024) is therefore the most defensible measure of behavioural strengthening with the data publicly available.
If a future release provides the nationality breakdown directly, this fact-check should be revisited — the per-capita number could overstate or understate the Maltese-national share depending on which group's PT use grew faster.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes — directionally and substantively. Ridership rose substantially under PL: +57.7% headline across 2017-2024, +27% per capita, with the bulk of the gains concentrated in the free-PT era (2023 onwards) and the trajectory continuing into 2025. The qualifier is that the headline overstates the per-capita strengthening (which is the policy-relevant metric), and that the available data does not allow independent verification of whether the gain is concentrated among Maltese nationals or non-resident foreign workers.
Verdict: Mostly True.