I totally agree with David Boomer (October 6).

My wife and I visited Malta – for the 11th time – between September 29 and October 10. However, we had not used the new bus system before.

Our first bus experience was on September 29. We wanted to go to Valletta and we found out that we had to take bus 12, 31, X1 or X3 from Qawra Road.

We waited at the bus stop from 9.30 to 11.30am and saw several buses pass by fully loaded. We eventually arrived in Valletta at 12.15pm. By that time, of course, the market was over.

The return trip was another disappointment. There were no buses going via Qawra Road to the Buġibba bus terminus. So we had to take the bus to Buġibba, stay aboard the bus at the terminus and wait till it departs again in the direction of Valletta and hop off at Qawra Road. This takes you another 15-30 minutes.

We had to follow this procedure nearly every day we went out. You should never take bus X1 or X3 on Qawra Road to the airport to catch your plane because you will most certainly miss it.

Most of the guests at our hotel on Qawra Road were British pensioners and they generally had a bad experience of the bus service, leading them to consider not returning to Malta next year because of the long waiting times and, once on the bus, having to stand all the way in a hot and sweaty roller-coaster.

We reckon that of the 10 days we stayed here, we spent almost one and a half days waiting for the bus! Still, we love Malta and the Maltese.

As Mr Boomer wrote, the Maltese deserve much better. And so do the tourists.