So this week we read that Transport Minister Joe Mizzi is going to commute by bus “to personally experience and better understand problems being reported by (Arriva) users”.

I wonder whether this is the grand plan Labour had claimed it had before the elections for Arriva.

On February 1, 2013, Labour leader Joseph Muscat was quoted as saying in one of his election press conferences that “the Labour Party had a comprehensive plan to improve the public transportsystem, which was one of the government’s biggest fiascos”.

Muscat had also stated that its traffic management plan would include a reform of the present public transport system, although I must admit I never found this plan anywhere. The manifesto had made a reference to the removal of bendy buses, but nothing more than that.

“We want a system that runs on time and efficiently. The reform was one of biggest fiascos which dented the government’s credibility,” Muscat was quoted as saying.

Now four months down the bus route we still don’t seem to have any solution in sight other than Mr Mizzi renouncing his ministerial car for a bus ride in the morning.

The fiasco, for want of a better word, is still there, and I’m not aware of any plan being implemented at this stage. One might argue that four months is not enough, but if a “comprehensive” plan was ready in February, I would have expected some concrete measures to have been put in place already. Let’s not forget that Arriva and the public transport service were two of the most hotly discussed issues and a cause of the internal strife within the Nationalist Party parliamentary group.

So let’s say it is important for the minister to understand the public transport users’ issues. But is it necessary or at all a good idea that the minister himself does this? Is he going to write a report himself of his findings?

Is their any risk that he would be recognised, and thus receive preferential treatment, especially now that he has announced it publicly, defeating the whole purpose? Would it not have been better to send a competent team from Transport Malta toreport back?

The truth is that I strongly believe that other than replacing a few bendy buses with double decker buses and a few route adjustments, there is not much more than can be done to Arriva. Yes the solution lies in a comprehensive plan for public transport, including new roads, bridges, alternate public transport, traffic management initiatives and so forth, reducing the dependence on Arriva per se.

Finally I was sent this picture that was posted on Facebook. Tube Map of Malta - that will be the day!

motoring@timesofmalta.com