July 2011

•Arriva service begins, but so do the problems: some 100 workers fail to show up on the first day.

•Commuters complain of extended delays and erratic service in the scorching summer sun.

•Arriva chauffeurs report picking up commuters in their own cars on their way home due to insufficient bus routes.

•In an effort to patch up its pride the company waives the fare and blames delays on drivers’ absence.

•Drivers stage a number of strikes complaining of harsh requirements and poor working conditions

•Poet Trevor Zahra writes a poem mocking the poor service.

September 2011

•Opposition Labour Party files a motion in Parliament condemning the government and Transport Minister Austin Gatt for the way the bus service reform was handled. It was defeated.

•Arriva launches its renewed service with more buses after a review of the routes.

October 2011

•Protest walk is held in Republic Street, Valletta, complaining about “unbear-able” service.

April 2012

•Transport Minister Austin Gatt reveals the company was fined more than €284,000 in five months over service shortcomings.

July 2012

•Arriva enters a long dispute with the General Workers Union over the salary and working conditions of its employees.

•Passengers complain of high temperatures as more than a third of buses’ air-conditioning units do not work.

October 2012

•About 40 drivers are suspended after abandoning bus routes and heading to their union. Several complain of wage discrepancies.

•Two drivers and 22 passengers are injured after three buses crash into Portes de Bombes. Sixteen are hospitalised. All three buses were just 16 months old. •London Mayor Boris Johnson aims his wit at Malta, boasting that the “jack-knifed diplodocus” bendy buses were now “clogging up the streets of Malta”.

November 2012

•Transport Malta slams Arriva’s “unacceptable” transport service and gives the company until the end of the month to bring it up to scratch.

•The authority also revealed buses were involved in more than 1,500 traffic accidents in its first year of operation.

May 2013

•Expat tells The Sunday Times of Malta her harrowing experience of an Arriva driver locking doors and hurling racist abuse at a migrant passenger while a ticket inspector stands watch over passengers.

July 2013

•Managing director Richard Hall resigns and leaves the company. He was the third managing director to step down in two years.

August 2013

•All 68 bendy buses are taken off the road after three buses catch fire in as many days. In all, eight buses caught fire in 2013.

•The string of bus fires sparks a meme frenzy on social media.

September 2013

•A lengthy inquiry into the safety of bendy buses carried out by Arriva concludes they are fit for service. The Transport Ministry, however, insisted on commissioning its own report, the details of which were never revealed.

•The bendy buses are never returned to service.

October 2013

•Arriva announces it could pack up and leave if losses continue. It made a loss of more than €50 million since starting in 2011.

•Government initiates talks with operator’s top brass.

December 2013

•The EU insists on the company scrapping its controversial two-tier ticket pricing system. The pricing scheme had been described as discriminatory by a number of local expat communities.

•Transport Minister Joe Mizzi tells The Sunday Times of Malta that the Arriva service will come to an end at the start of the New Year. January 2014

•Transport Malta takes over the operation of public transport using the same buses and drivers. A call for interested parties is expected next week.