A year ago today, Arriva took over the running of the bus transport system.

As we all remember, Arriva did not have a good start, especially since many drivers did not turn up for work on the first day and they needed to be replaced. Confusion reigned supreme for several weeks so much so that a vote of confidence was taken in Transport Minister Austin Gatt in November, a vote that passed thanks to the Speaker’s casting vote after Nationalist MP Franco Debono abstained.

Since then, the bus transport service has drastically improved, and we no longer hear calls for resignations. It was simply a case that the expectations were raised too high, and many expected perfection right from the first day.

The service is not perfect today, and it will never be. But it must be admitted that the country is much better off today than it was at the time before Arriva took over. The fact that modern, air-conditioned buses replaced the old vehicles was already a step in the right direction. And now that each and every town and village has a bus service to Valletta or Mater Dei has made a difference too.

Still, whether the original idea for a complete overhaul of the public transport system – that of reducing the number of private cars on the road – has worked out is debatable. Patronage may have increased, and people who had never used public transport did try it out, but it does not seem that there are fewer cars on the road.

Traffic is still horrendously slow at peak hours and parking problems remain almost everywhere. So it is apparent that the majority of the Maltese still prefer to make use of their private vehicles rather than the Arriva service. Although reliability and efficiency have improved when compared with the previous system, many Maltese still opt to be their own masters rather than having to rely on buses to move from point A to point B.

What the new system has brought about is regular changes to the routes depending on the needs of society. We had at least four changes to fine-tune the system as introduced on 3 July last year. But although in some cases this proved to be a move in the right direction, in others it was not. We mention, as just one example, the service we have for our offices in St Julian’s (bordering San Ġwann). Until early May, this area was serviced regularly by two routes, which meant that we had buses every 10 minutes. Now we have only one route and buses arrive every 30 minutes.