On 2 July, I was present at the new Valletta terminus to hear Minister Austin Gatt boasting of a state-of-the-art (as he called it) public transport service that the Maltese people have long been waiting for.

Today, almost three months after the new transport system was introduced, patient Maltese residents are still experiencing huge problems to travel from one place to another by bus.

Sometimes we are told that the service is slowly improving. Transport Malta is only taking us for a ride.

On 11 September, new bus routes were introduced, among them, direct route 54 from Attard, running every 60 minutes. Or is it every 30 minutes? The official Arriva leaflet indicates both 60 and 30 minutes on the very same page. When asked about the right frequency, customer care personnel still don’t seem to be able to agree. Is this the state-of-the-art passenger information system?

Arriva promised to deliver a positive change: a modern, comfortable, and above all reliable service. Surely, they were let down by no one else but Transport Malta and the Transport Ministry, responsible for all the chaos and suffering caused to residents, who certainly deserve much better treatment.

■ Vanni Vella

Balzan