I am recently experiencing some very outlandish feelings towards Malta’s public transport service, especially since the introduction of the new routes. My recent experience as a Gozitan university student follows.

Arriving at Ċirkewwa at 6.55am along with other fellow students and workers, under normal circumstances we wait about half an hour for the supposedly express X1 to depart.

At other times it departs at extreme punctuality, over-looking the fact that nobody has yet arrived.

At other times the X1 does not depart from Ċirkewwa at all. Indeed, the most vital route for Gozitan students and workers is sometimes cancelled because as the dispatcher says, “there are not enough buses”.

What a service! We almost never arrive on time.

Sadly, the drama does not stop here. Since I reside in Floriana, I have to catch a bus to Valletta. Buses used to pass by constantly. However, due to the recent abolishment of most of the routes, I am now obliged to wait more than an hour for a bus.

When it does eventually turn up, it is already full due to a huge horde of annoyed people lingering at Mater Dei hospital.
On my return to Gozo, the X1 is expected to pass by every half an hour, yet it never does so, sometimes employing more than an hour and a half.

As if this is not enough, most of the time the bus arrives at Ċirkewwa just in time for us to be informed that the ferry has just departed.

This really puts the cherry on the cake.

Faced by this, I feel at a loss. We have exorbitantly high vehicle licence and fuel prices, plus a horrendous bus service. We are neither encouraged to drive our way, nor take the bus.

One solution is left - marching to our destination.

Very cunning indeed. There is one hitch however; it is making Malta look worse than a third world country.