Colour me cynical if you will but could the extremely tardy and “no other option” claim by Arriva, as evident by their willingness to appeal the planning authority’s rejection of their application for a “crucial” bus depot on virgin land in Żebbuġ, be just a ploy? Is their intent to pressurise the government into acquiescing to their demand given their close proximity to commencing operations?

There also appears to be no back-up or contingency plan by Arriva to mitigate such a failure or at least none made public.

If this performance is any indication of the level of Arriva’s management capabilities and attention to detail, then it does not augur well for future performance expectations, with their ability to operate a successful public transport operation greatly undermined by such incompetence.