Three weeks from today, Malta will have its new public transport service. Preparations have been in full swing for the past few weeks but it is already clear that the new system is already finding a number of obstacles that will be hard to overcome – even before the service actually starts running.

One hitch is Bisazza Street in Sliema. We have come to know that this main shopping area in Sliema will not be free of cars as we were told it would be when, a few days ago, the government ceremoniously opened it as a pedestrianised area. It has been said that buses will still have to use this stretch because they have no alternative route as yet, a situation that has angered the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises.

As usually happens in such cases, the different entities blame each other. But the fact remains that, as things stand now, public transport through Sliema will not be short of difficulties. Having to “open” Bisazza Street for buses will create an inconvenience. Added to this, the paving of the road was not intended for heavy vehicles to pass through, and we run the risk of having the road damaged just a few weeks after so much money was spent to renovate it.

It has been said that the use of Bisazza Street will be temporary. But we all know that, in Malta, “temporary” could mean months.

But Bisazza Street is not the only hitch that has made the headlines. We have also come to know that the Valletta bus terminus will not be completed before 3 July, and this means that commuters will have to wait in the scorching summer heat without any shelter. The canopies will hopefully be completed before winter starts. The authorities have said that waiting time will be limited, but this does not mean that the fact that the terminus will be incomplete by the time the new system comes into force is justified.

That bus-stops will all have a different name to make travelling and the planning of journeys much easier. But the bus-stops are still to be completed with all the relevant information that we have been promised. For one thing, commuters still do not know what names are to be given to the bus-stops they will be using. When they try to check on Arriva’s website, the bus-stops are listed by name, but not by location, and when they call on the number given to check, the Arriva people manning the phones are not equipped to give out the correct information.

There are great expectations that the new bus service will finally give Malta the type of system that will make travelling easier and reduce the number of cars on our roads. Efforts in the past have failed. This time, it seems that a greater attempt has been made to resolve the problem. If the new system fails, then the flop will be greater.