David Demajo (November 7), writing about the plethora of Arriva buses in St Julians, questions whether they are necessary for the number of passengers coming from Mellieħa and Ċirkewwa.

Well, I can tell him that the number 12 to Sliema, the 41 to Valletta and the 31 coming through St Paul’s Bay are always full and do not stop. They are supposed to pass by every half hour but that is a rare occurrence.

Should one be fortunate enough to board the 222 or 223 to the Qawra bus station one will of course find another queue and it can take more than an hour and a half to get anywhere.

In the area of St Paul’s we are an island unto ourselves. I always take a taxi for appointments to be sure to get there on time. I know the yellow buses had failings but there were more of them and one could get all over the island without changing buses.

The old routes should have been kept. As an elderly person who cannot walk far, the bus stop is now too far away. There are a lot of elderly people here who find that Arriva does not provide a good service.

So the suggestion to cut the number of buses is completely ridiculous. A visit to this area to check would suffice.