I invite senior Arriva and Transport Malta officials to take a bus ride to or from the airport on one of the X3 buses. The ride on this bendy bus is truly a bone- shaking experience which cannot be described other than as a shameful embarrassment to any public transport service.

The rattling noise as each panel shakes and strains at the joints or missing clips and rubber buffers is an ear-splitting clangour. Each time that the bus hits one of the bumps on our roller coaster roads it bucks violently throwing you out of your seat to land back with a hurting thud.

I was so embarrassed when a young tourist so amused by this experience grabbed the handle of the seat in front of him and took the stance of a rodeo cowboy riding a bucking and rearing bull.

In one year our roads and poor choice of buses with the wrong kinetic characteristics has reduced these buses to a worse condition than our old, now scrapped, vintage buses, which, at least, had colour and character. In contrast, these bendy hunks have already been reduced to nothing more than lumps of metal good only for scrap. We are truly presenting an impressive welcome to arriving tourists and an advert for Arriva, the Europe-wide company with their motto of “constantly better service”.