Difficult as it may have been, the selection process to choose the preferred bidder which will now enter into negotiations with the government on the implementation of the public transport reform was probably the easier part of the government’s plan to give a new lease of life to the sector.

The harder part will come now – and this is to change the mentality of the people, and making it more comfortable for them to use the buses to get from point A to point B, while they leave their cars parked in front of their house or in their garages.

Very few people use public transport – some 12 per cent of the population, which is nowhere near the 50 per cent average in the European Union. And the reasons for this are obvious – the current public transport system leaves so much to be desired and, worse, every time there has been an attempt to overhaul the situation, it failed miserably and only served to increase the cost of the fares. People have been fooled more than once in this regard, and it will now take a much greater effort for them to believe that all has been put into place.

This time, it seems that the effort undertaken by the present minister responsible for transport, Austin Gatt, is more serious and comprehensive, unlike the cosmetic ones made by his predecessors. The selection of Arriva Consortium – with the highly creditable Arriva International Ltd and the Tumas Group as its major shareholders – ends the adjudication phase (pending negotiations) and opens up the next stage of the reform.

But for the reform to succeed, there is much more that needs to be done, apart from the change to the current fleet of buses, an improved time-table, better connections and more reliability of the service. All this will help, but unless the people change the way they travel and start using buses more than they are doing now, the reform will fail once again. As from December or early next year, Malta may have the best buses available, but unless they are used, the reform would have been in vain.

The government must therefore embark on a campaign to persuade the people that, once the changes are in place, it would be better for them – and cheaper too – to use the buses instead of driving their own car, being caught up in traffic and then not find a parking place (or pay for parking).

We are a conservative people, and do not accept change easily. With an average of one car per adult population, it is evident that our way of life depends on the use of our private vehicles. We have got used to this system and will not alter our routine easily.

And this is why the hardest part of the public transport reform is still to come. The people need to be convinced that, this time, what the government is describing as a reform is, for all intents and purposes, a real transformation of the prevailing public transport system, and not just words.

The target set by the government – an overall increase in the use of buses by 54 per cent in 10 years – is not easy to achieve, considering that the numbers have been on the decline for quite a while.

But it is not impossible. Malta deserves to have a reliable and efficient public transport system, both for the locals and for the many tourists who visit.