AEC Mercury Bus from Malta

Exported to Malta in CKD form as a lorry chassis, this Mercury was instead bodied locally as a 34-seat bus by Michael Barbara. It worked Malta’s colourful pre-1973 bus network, before returning to the UK in 2015.

AEC Mercury (1965)

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

Delivered to Malta in 1965 as a CKD AEC Mercury lorry chassis, SXS 327 took a very different path from its original intention. Instead of becoming a goods vehicle, it was transformed into a 34-seat bus by the local coachbuilder Michael Barbara of Luqa, whose styling gave Malta’s buses a character all of their own.

Linking Valletta with Buġibba, it worked within Malta’s unique, family-run bus system where vehicles were identified by route numbers and liveries rather than company names. Like many Maltese buses, it enjoyed a long working life marked by rebuilding and re-engining, reflecting an island tradition of keeping vehicles in service for decades rather than years.

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

AEC Mercury (1965): Aldridge Transport Museum

Text © Aldridge Transport Museum

A 1963 AEC Mercury lorry: kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

• The National Archives of Malta: Bus 2003
• Malta’s former owner-driver bus system
• Aldridge Transport Museum

Further Information

• List of transport museums in the UK