I choose a provocative headline on purpose.

It’s to say that, whatever plans are implemented, the public transport system in Malta can never be as reliable, efficient and on track as all of us would like it to be. The users will always complain about its delays and poor service, while those who have a car will still prefer the frustration of heavy traffic and difficult parking rather than use buses.

The Labour Party, when in Opposition, made heavy gains on the political front when Arriva was brought over to replace the old system. From Day 1, there was constant pressure by the PL and its media allies to demonise the company that had taken over the operation of the bus service. Yes, there were problems, and bendy-buses should have never been used on the tiny Maltese roads, but it was certainly not as bad as the PL was saying.

Labour gave the impression that they had the solution to the problem, and when it was elected to government, one of the first decisions that was taken was to, once again, change the bus service operators. And it made it seem that everything was in place.

However, this is a far cry from reality.

The chaos on Wednesday when the tallinja cards were introduced was just the climax of a series of issues that have dogged the bus services for the past months. The unprofessional way that Malta Public Transport dealt with the card services is just one example of a bus service system that is still of a third world country, and which in no way will encourage more users – other than those who do not have a car and are forced to use public transport.

MPT could not even organise a single-line queue for people waiting to be served, leading to a very unfortunate incident involving a Hungarian national, which once again exposed how racist some Maltese people are. The excessive force used by the officers against an innocent man is also indicative of how the situation went out of control.

The Labour Party, when in Opposition, used to complain about delays, long queues, arrogant bus drivers, buses that broke down, faulty air-conditioning, buses that did not turn up at all, a poor schedule of services and more.

Well, the PL is now in government, the bus operators have been changed, but the same problems that existed two years ago are still there today.

Buses still don’t turn up on time or nor at all, buses still break down, air-conditioning units still don’t work properly and the queues are still there for all to see. Commuters still complain that bus drivers often overload their vehicles beyond the limit to shorten the queues and attempt to cut down on delays. Passengers still say that some bus drivers treat them badly. Drivers still say that bus drivers do not use bus bays when stopping to pick up or offload passengers.

So, in reality, Malta’s bus service is still shoddy, amateurish and unreliable. Nothing has changed since the Arriva days.