From Mr L. Grech

It seems that the village of Marsaxlokk enjoys the luxury of having three bus terminuses. The official one is close to the primary school and there is another one by the seaside, which is supposedly reserved for Sundays only but is being used on a daily basis. According to Manuel Gatt from the ADT, the attitude of bus drivers operating route 27 who do not complete their journey and stop at the seaside terminus (just in front of the Police Station) instead of the one next to the school is abusive. so dear “Authorities’ go ahead and do your duty because that’s what you are being paid for!

I am writing this letter since citizens who reside in the Port Ruman area, which is a fair distance from the seaside terminus, are being denied the service they are paying for. This is a major inconvenience especially for the elderly, parents with young children and so on. I do not know in whose interest this situation is being tolerated and I appeal to the consumer department to look into the matter as well.

Following my complaint to Mr Gatt some weeks ago, the situation regarding the bus terminus issue has improved. However, the service schedule was altered at the same time and without prior notice to the inconvenience of many Marsaxlokk residents. This brought about complaints from various residents and eventually the schedule was restored to its original format. Unfortunately, this has needlessly affected the terminus issue and things went back to square one.

To add insult to injury, a third terminus was constructed just prior to last March local elections. This is conveniently situated above the football ground and will better serve Port Ruman residents. However, this terminus is currently being used as a bring-in site instead! (see photo). Now I would like to ask the authorities and other people concerned to explain such a waste of taxpayers’ money. Who is going to be held accountable for this?

What puzzles me most here is that with all its managers, the ADT is seemingly incapable of solving this simple problem. How can they or anyone involved in this sector ever expect to persuade more people to use public transport when its management is so amateurish? I sincerely hope they will not try to solve it by increasing the fare to make up for the useless overhead costs.

Louis Grech

MARSAXLOKK