This is the last week that Malta’s traditional buses will be seen on the road, and suddenly it seems that – for all our complaining about them – people have realised that they are going to actually miss them.

Documentaries are being produced about the demise of an era, and some are becoming downright sentimental about the fact that the colourful, quirky yellow buses which belch smoke, driven by their equally colourful drivers, will soon be no more.

Tourists have always been charmed by our unique buses (unless of course they have had a very bad altercation with a rude bus driver in which case the charm rapidly disintegrates) and it is easy to see why they are viewed as a fascinating tourist attraction. You just don’t see this type of public transport anywhere else in Europe.

Living with the buses however, when you are dependent on them for your daily needs, is another story altogether. It’s true that we have often laughed in exasperation at the lack of efficiency, the pollution, and the absence of comfort during our damp, cold winters and our humid, stifling summers. We have come to accept with helpless resignation that too many of the shabbily dressed drivers display a shocking lack of manners, downright arrogance, and a belligerent, threatening attitude if you dare ask for change. We have learned to live with it and laugh about it because up to now, we have had no choice.

It has come to a point however, that living with this ‘tourist attraction’ which foreigners find so amusing, is no longer a source of humour for us. In hindsight it is easy to say now that perhaps something could have been done to preserve the character of the buses from the outside while ensuring that the inside was clean and comfortable, and changing the engines so that they could be run in an environmentally friendly way; but for whatever reasons, this compromise was never reached.

Instead, we are going to have to trade nostalgia for efficiency. A corporate franchise will now be taking over Malta’s roads, and if the new, clearly marked bus stops which are being put into place are any indication, it looks that we will finally be dragging our public transport system into the new century. It is a step which should have been taken years ago, and now that it is finally on our doorstep, we have to decide whether we would rather be attached to sentiment or a system which actually functions.

Of course, documenting the old buses before they are taken off the roads is a good idea, but if we had to be honest with ourselves we would have to admit that we could not continue in the way we were; with everyone forced to use their car in an overly-populated island where parking is at a minimum and snarls of traffic keep pushing people into road rage.

Arriva has arrived, and while saying goodbye to the old buses may be a difficult thing to do for nostalgic reasons, one hopes that the new public transport system will be a success and will encourage more people to leave their car at home, and hop on a bus instead. For, let us be frank, the old buses never had that effect.