Though more than five months have passed since public transport was taken over by Arriva, we are still suffering from its “revolutionary” effects, as promised on the eve of its inauguration.

Booking a seat in the studio of Xarabank, the popular weekly programme on TVM, is not easy. Yet it was no problem for its presenter to postpone the November 25 programme, which was to deal with public transport, because of the absence of the Transport Minister.

Since it was the Prime Minister who decided to set up a task force to deal with public transport, I believe he should have been invited instead, since he chairs the task force, together with the head of the minister’s secretariat and senior executives from Transport Malta.

Anyway we, the travelling public, are being kept in the dark as to the remit and duration of this task force. Perhaps by the end of the year we will get back what we used to enjoy, namely a ride from Swieqi to Sliema and vice-versa without having to change buses and wasting time. Incidentally, I am still waiting for an answer to my petition which I handed in personally on November 2 to to the ministry in Valletta.