Arriva has been with us for some weeks now and one can notice little or no improvement in its service. The situation is far from normal though not chaotic as in the first few days. Still, the commuters continue to face great inconvenience and the grumbling naturally goes unabated.
The number of drivers who failed to report for work and the abrupt change certainly has helped in no small way to make the start of the new service difficult. But now it has been proven beyond doubt that the system has failed and changes have to be made to meet the needs of the commuters.
Though we have no critical comment to make on the clean and comfortable buses and their well-dressed and good-mannered drivers, we cannot say the same for the new bus routes which have confused all commuters.
It is strange to notice circular buses making their rounds empty while long queues of commuters wait for their buses to other destinations. The routes which are not patronised should be stopped and the buses allocated to other busy ones.
It is now time to make an assessment of the whole situation and allocate buses were they are most needed. This can easily be checked from takings on these routes. Both the public and Arriva stand to gain if the routes that are not patronised are stopped. At present they are just wasting money and human resources.
Really, I cannot see the reason why the old bus routes, which had improved over the time, were disregarded when planning the new system. It seems clear that those involved in the planning of the new system were not familiar with the Maltese trends of travelling. Valletta remains the centre of attraction for the Maltese. Just imposing a system overnight is not the way things should be done. Any change should have been introduced gradually as normally happens when a big change takes place.
The government should take heed of the pleas of the public and revert to the old proven bus routes, and start again from there.
The sooner this fiasco is over the better.
Another thing: the government cannot go on scoring these auto goals and expect to win the next election.