I was not unduly surprised that Arriva were incurring losses of €400,000 per week.

I hail from St Julian’s, and see a great number of Arriva buses, in fact far too many, especially when I remember that Sliema and St Julian’s were previously being served by routes 61, 62 and 63. This meant that the previous bus owners who ran these services knew exactly how many buses were needed to serve the public properly.

Today, one can observe (in St Julian’s) buses also hailing from Mtarfa, Rabat, Mellieħa and Ċirkewwa. I ask Arriva, how many passengers does it carry on the above services to St Julian’s and Sliema?

I admit that notwithstanding the colours and age of the old buses, Malta did need to modernise its fleet. Comfort was required as also air-conditioning.

As I write this letter, I cannot but think of those traffic creators called the bendy buses. Ever since they have been off our roads, traffic has gotten a bit better, and if Arriva decides to reduce the number of buses on the routes I mentioned above, we will have less traffic and they would be able to reduce their losses.