I am a British tourist and I am here with my 83-year-old mother. We both chose to tour by Arriva, after having heard differing opinions about the service, and now I understand why. The first time we used Arriva, the service was good. It was on time, a bus was waiting at Valletta and we hopped on and hopped off, making it back to our hotel in the evening. The second time we used it in Valletta, there was no bus and there was no one to tell me what was going on. My ageing mother and I stood for 50 minutes. We went to the kiosk to ask for information, but all we were told by the group of giggling, pretending to look very busy clerks, was that the bus we were after departed every 30 minutes. When I told them we had been waiting for 50 minutes, they repeated the same line and went back to giggling. This happened on Monday afternoon, in case the company wants to check it out. To add insult to injury, a driver was chatting to us and I told him the tale and he told us that the drivers were pretty sick and fed up of the way things were with the information kiosk, adding that while he and his mates worked shift after shift, the people in the kiosk earned more for doing, clearly, much less.

It’s a shame because the buses themselves are quick and comfortable. No wonder the locals grumble. It’s the service, as well as the buses, that matter.

■ Jan Adwick

Leeds