The plan for buses to be given priority during the traffic rush hour is the latest move in what is turning out to be a public transport reform that is taking too long to settle down.

Launched with so much pomp last July, the system has not reached the people’s expectations, perhaps also because these expectations were too high, as Minister Austin Gatt has admitted several times.

Since then, we have had changes to the routes until, last Sunday, we went back to having Valletta as the central focus (apart from having a direct route to Mater Dei Hospital from each and every locality) simply because the interchange concept did not work out as it should have.

Now we also have a task force, headed by the Prime Minister, which has already come up with its first idea – to have buses given priority on the roads, and not only on bus lanes, during the peak hour.

Minister Gatt, on Wednesday’s Net TV programme Iswed fuq l-Abjad, said that this is intended to lead to a culture change – that of encouraging more and more people to use public transport service, rather than drive their own car.

There are two issues here – and the first is whether we, as Maltese, want to go for this culture change. It is always hard to change a routine, and in this case it might be even harder, considering that the public transport system in Malta has not been up-to-standard, and that the Arriva service has had many hiccups since day one.

The second issue is whether our roads are capable of handling this new situation – that is to allow buses to pass other cars with the intention of having a faster, more reliable and more efficient bus service.

What is going to happen in single-lane roads, for example? And will this mean that we will have policemen, soldiers or wardens at each corner to make sure that private vehicles make way for the Arriva buses? Aren’t we complicating matters even further, and increasing the risk of having more confusion on the roads?

Of course, we reserve our judgement for when this new scenario comes into force, but we cannot but express our doubts on whether this is actually the way things should be done.

Minister Gatt has said that the idea to give priority to buses is “revolutionary”, but wasn’t this same adjective, or something similar, used when the new bus system was going to be launched?

We have to wait and see.