I arrived at 5 p.m. on March 6 via taxi at Ċirkewwa for the 5.15 p.m. ferry. The taxi put my suitcase next to the baggage container which has to be loaded to be brought to the ferry. There was no staff member present.

I left the baggage and got my ticket. When I came back, there were three other passengers waiting with their luggage.

Still no staff member and everybody got rather nervous, since we got closer to the departure time of the ferry and could not just leave the luggage on its own. It seems that the Gozo Channel person who is responsible for the luggage was waiting for the luggage to come off the ferry before he came to take our luggage to be placed in the waiting container.

When he finally turned up we had just about two minutes before the ferry's departure. As the way from the ticket booth to the departure of the ferry is quite a stretch we all ran and I really was out of breath when I arrived on the gang plank, just before the plank went up. The carriage container, which is driven by a motor, was of course there before we reached the ferry. Any elderly person or slightly disabled person could never have reached the ferry on time.

I definitely think there should always be a staff member receiving the luggage before the people go into the office to get their tickets, i.e. when they come off a taxi, bus or car.

It makes a terrible impression on visitors to be left in this kind of a situation.