Changes in bus routes

My wife and I are holidaying in Malta and, on July 12, we decided to go to Valletta using public transport and taking route bus 64 from Ibraġ.

After waiting 25 minutes at the Valletta bus terminus for bus 64, to return home, the bus pulled up, the driver parked on the opposite side of boarding and walked away. When it was convenient to him, he came back and motioned to us to start boarding.

My wife could not pick up her leg to the first step of the bus, which was at least 20 inches off the ground, and she asked the driver to assist her. The driver abruptly said that he does not help anyone. Two foreign students, who had boarded before her, came to help her and we managed to put her on the bus.

When the bus arrived at St Julian's bus terminus to let off passengers, the driver looked back and, after seeing that six passengers remained on the bus, he told us to get off. We said that this was bus 64. However, the driver stated: "It is no longer 64 but as of now it is 62." He said we should take the next bus 64 and, therefore, all of us were forced to leave the bus. To finish our journey home at Ibraġ, we had to take a taxi, which cost us €10, as we could not wait for an hour for the next bus 64 to arrive.

When we got home, we called the police to file a complaint but were told to go to St Julian's police station to do that. The next morning, we went to the police station, as directed, and gave a detailed account of the previous day's incident, including the bus licence plate number. The police gave us the report number and advised us to call the Transport Authority to file a complaint with them as well.

The authority insisted that we should go to the office at the Valletta bus terminus to lodge our complaint, even though we informed them that we had filed a report with the police.

When we made our complaint with the Transport Authority, we were told that someone would be contacting us. However, at the time of writing, we are still waiting for this contact.

Now we understand why the public transport drivers are abusive, do as they please and keep breaking the rules.

They are not being forced to comply with the rules and regulations and, until discipline is enforced on them, they will continue to be unruly.

We are asking the authority to suspend the driver involved in this case and to refund us the €10 we paid for the taxi service.