Problems still being faced by commuters (1)

I’ve been using the new bus system Mondays to Fridays for two weeks now and, while I have been enduring it all, I have never taken the time to write about it. But now, enough is enough!

Why have Arriva put routes 71 and 72 in competition with each other? Why do more 72 buses leave the terminus in Valletta than 71 buses?

Before July 3, the Qrendi and Żurrieq buses were two separate units – bus 35 to Qrendi was one thing and buses 32 and 34 were another thing. In fact, we didn’t even share the same departure slot at Valletta. Now we are, and I have no problem with this so long as Arriva realises that Żurrieq and Qrendi are two different final destinations! Before July 3 I could make use of both routes 32 and 34 because both passed through Safi (where I live) and I was adequately and frequently catered for. Now there is only route 71 that takes me from Valletta to Safi and if that isn’t already worse than before, I have to wait for two or three route 72 buses to leave the terminus at Valletta before someone decides to send out a route 71 bus.

Arriva will probably say I can easily get on the 72 bus, get off at the airport and hop on a 71 or 117 bus to take me to Safi. Guess what? I’ve already been silly enough to attempt this wild suggestion... If the bus terminus at Valletta is a jungle, the one at the airport is complete wilderness. It is shameful that on exit from the airport, one is faced with such a primitive picture of our country. Anyway, back to my silly stop at the airport.

I was such an Alice in Wonderland thinking that a 117 bus would be there waiting for me to take me to Safi. I waited in the wilderness under a scorching sun among tourists, who were lucky to have a suitcase to sit on, for another 20 minutes... And would you like to know how long my journey from Valletta to Safi took? Between waiting and travelling, it took me one hour and 15 minutes to cover a journey that previously took 30 minutes.

So this experience of taking two buses to get from Valletta to Safi is a Never Again.

Instead of making the residents of Kirkop, Safi and Żurrieq enemies of residents of Qrendi and Mqabba, why doesn’t Arriva alternate between a 71 and a 117 bus instead of between a 71 and 72 bus at Valletta?

I still cannot understand why route 71 has to be so similar to route 72. Why does route 71 follow the same roads that route 72 takes? Why does bus 71 go past the Water Services Corporation in Ħal-Farruġ and why does it pass outside St Vincent de Paul? And why doesn’t bus 71 pass through Luqa square any more?

Is Arriva aware that the government dispensary is situated in St Paul’s Street in Luqa? While this road was catered for by bus before July 3, it isn’t any more. Are the operators aware that elderly people and people with mobility problems have to regularly collect their medication from this dispensary and now there isn’t a bus service that adequately caters for them?

Please, do not tell me there is an internal bus that caters for central Luqa.

It already is inconvenient to catch one Arriva bus, let alone two.

Arriva officials should visit the terminus at the airport to realise what a mess there is every single day, with Maltese and foreigners alike struggling to get onto a bus.

Can Arriva please put itself in the shoes of an elderly or disabled person for whom it is already a feat to get on one bus, let alone get off one and then take another (and only God knows how long you have to wait for a second bus to come along... As if waiting for the first bus isn’t more than enough already)?

The solution to this is rerouting bus number 71 to pass through Luqa square (as routes 32 and 34 used to before Arriva came along) and instead of exiting to Ħal-Farruġ from the Lidl/Mambra exit, route 71 should pass through St Paul’s Street and then on to Valletta Road, where the industrial estate is. We’ve also forgotten the numerous people working at these factories, haven’t we? Isn’t their job worth catering for too?