I keep asking what the ‘Sorry not in service’ sign on buses means. Who is sorry? The driver? The bus company? Transport Malta? Sorry for what? Why is it that we notice scores of buses parading with this sign on when bus stops are constantly full of desperate and angry commuters?
Is this really the best service we can be offered? Who is really ‘sorry’ in this hopeless situation if not the commuters? Last Sunday at 5.45pm I was with 15 other people braving the cold winds at one of the non-sheltered bus stops at Malta International Airport.
The X4 bus was scheduled to arrive at 6.03pm. At 6.05pm an X4 bus displaying the Valletta destination sign turned into the other bus stop some 30 metres away (reserved for the X2 bus) and the passengers got off. The display sign was then switched off and the bus drove away. We then had to wait for a further 30 minutes, shivering in the cold.
Who is sorry for us? In the booklet delivered to each and every household regarding the new routes, we are told: “The new routes were designed following a period during which over 3,500 proposals were considered.” It continues: “Changes were made so that communities are served better.”
I keep wondering, for example, why anyone would suggest to stop the X5 and X7 buses in service. These bus routes used to take locals, tourists or newly-arrived flight passengers to Valletta, where they could proceed to their destination.
What about the fiasco on Christmas Day’s mid-day break? Instead of the usual, gradual stoppage we were used to in previous years, this time thousands of commuters all over Malta were left stranded as buses began their break by as early as 11am!
The few buses that ran scheduled routes after that time switched off their sign lights, ignored passengers waiting to be collected and sped towards Floriana, where they were detailed to be by noon.
What happened to the customary bit-by-bit, gradual stoppage we were used to in previous years? Who is sorry for the mayhem created when no one was made aware of this drastic, sudden change?
I personally was such a victim, who, like many others, phoned relatives or friends and asked to be collected. However, many less fortunate people, like one senior citizen in tears, had to wait for the service to restart functioning some three hours later.
Don’t ask me if this uncalled for early stoppage was repeated on New Year’s Day. I didn’t risk facing such a repeat organised by the uncaring local transport service.
The bus service boasts it is “the easiest way to travel”. Local commuters are convinced it is not.