Despite Arriva’s claims that noticeable progress in the bus service has been made since the new system was introduced earlier this month, complaints have continued, particularly over sometimes excessive delays.

Clearly, people haven’t been noticing problems on every route, but as Arriva itself said earlier this week, some areas need further addressing.

Yesterday, a reader complained that it took him three hours to travel from Ċirkewwa to St Julian’s. Imagine having to travel from Gozo to go to work in Malta every morning, he remarked.

Many people have also been complaining about having to wait for more than an hour at bus stops, and another reader noted that the Valletta bus station was packed with people on Monday evening, at about 7.45pm. It wasn’t rush hour, and there were no particular events that may have attracted a lot of people, she commented.

Meanwhile, a series of questions sent to Arriva yesterday remained unanswered, but the company is expected to give an update on the first round of service changes in the coming days.

Earlier this week, Arriva said that the current contingency bus service is expected to end by September as the company intends employing about 240 new Maltese bus drivers, just before the winter schedule comes into effect on 1 October.