This amount also includes Lm3.8 million which was only spent on modernising the bus fleet. The amount covers 119 buses that have so far been changed. Another 28 new buses are expected to start being used in the coming months.

So many things have changed in Malta since 1999 but I saw for myself last week that the public transport system has not improved much. In 1999 I bought my first car, so since then I have not used the service except on extraordinary occasions. The public transport I left then was the same one I found when last Thursday I decided to spend a morning travelling on buses.

I started my day at the Valletta bus terminus. While I was there, I walked into the corner bar where bus drivers gather to have a coffee. Apart from the usual talk in pure Maltese, I overheard some bus drivers discussing a story that had appeared in this newspaper about what they were requesting from government.

When I heard a commotion outside, I left the bar and found a procession of about 10 buses all hooting their horns.

The cause of all this was a bus parked in the centre of a lane, with its doors shut. Other drivers said that the driver of the bus was having a coffee. Seeing that no driver bothered to move the bus, buses had to reverse and take another route to reach their parking bays.

I caught the first bus to Sliema at about 10.15am. The trip on board the 62 was OK. It reminded me a lot of the past when I caught the bus to and from Paceville. During the trip, the bus, on two occasions, did not pick up and drop off passengers from inside the bus bay at the side of road. This created a traffic jam for a short time till the commuters boarded or disembarked the bus.

What struck me was that when we had arrived at the Sliema Ferries, the bus driver shouted out “Sliema Ferries” for the benefit of those tourists who did not know when they had to get off the bus.

I got off the bus at Spinola Bay where I was planning to get the next bus to take me to St Paul’s Bay. I waited from 10.47am till 11.25am in the scorching sun because there is no bus shelter there.

There was also no bus schedule and so I did not know that bus number 70 was not operating except for once in the morning. I phoned the ADT office for information and was told that bus number 652 was the direct bus route to Bugibba from St Julian’s.

While I was waiting at the bus stop, the driver of a bus, whose registration number has been passed on to the authorities, was seen speaking on his mobile phone while driving and then stopped to finish off his conversation in the middle of the road, creating havoc and a long traffic jam.I caught the next 652 and I was on the way to Bugibba. The driver’s green shirt, supposed to be his uniform, was out of his trousers and all buttons were open, showing off his tattoos and several gold chains.

He also drove all along the Coast Road with his arm outside his window. I arrived in Bugibba at 11.55am and immediately caught the 627 to Marsaxlokk.

The driver of the new ‘Made in Malta’ bus was very cordial and left the terminus at noon sharp.

He explained patiently to tourists that the bus only drove to Marsaxlokk and was not passing through Valletta.

Since it was getting late, I stopped in Marsa, crossed Aldo Moro Road using the bridge, and waited on the other side of the road for the last bus to take me to Valletta.

Soon after, bus number 19 passed.

The bus, even though not one of the oldest buses in Malta, was in a disastrous state and was filthy and the driver nearly needed a hammer to change his gears.

I arrived in Valletta safely and thought to myself that the experience of being on a Maltese bus remained more or less the same as it was five years ago.

Since then Lm10 million have been spent on a service that has not improved much, except for fewer rude bus drivers and better buses.

The rest remained the same, especially at the Valletta bus terminus!

I got into my car and went for lunch, happy that, hopefully, it will be a long time before I will have to use the Maltese public transport again!