In spite of numerous tweaks to the route network, making it home from Gћadira Bay by bus on weekends is still a long shot. A year after the new service was launched, the sight of crowded bus stops is still common at this highly popular beach. Ironically, public transport operator Arriva is running an advertising campaign encouraging people to go to the beach by bus.

The situation gets progressively worse approaching Mellieћa, with commuters more often than not unable to board a bus which is already full. Mellieћa and St Paul’s Bay residents are carrying the heavier brunt as by the time the bus makes it there, it is virtually impossible to get onboard.

Commuters also have to contend with the possibility of remaining stranded as there have been several incidents involving buses, especially the bendy ones, which break down. One such case happened on Sunday shortly before 7pm as soon as the bus approached the lower end of Main Street in Mellieћa.

Following a long wait to board the bus, passengers had to disembark and join a sizeable crowd waiting at the closest bus stop to continue their journey back home. Needless to say, they vented their frustration at the poor service while others gave up hope and contacted relatives or friends to pick them up by car.

According to statistics sent at the request of this newspaper in recent days by Transport Malta, there was an increase of 2.8 million passengers in the first year since Arriva took over the public transport. This amounts to an 11% increase, with the total number of passengers since July 2011, being 28,233,740.

Though after a difficult start there was a marked improvement in the service, with more buses being used, and a huge number of routes being revised back to the original following a public outcry, shortcomings persist.

One particular complaint concerns buses with no air conditioning. Though Arriva claims that this problem is temporary and 99% of its fleet is up to standard, this is no consolation for passengers boarding a packed bendy bus all the way to Ċirkewwa as was the case yesterday at around noon on route 41. According to the agreement reached last October when Arriva was forced to increase the number of buses in an effort to improve its service, by the end of May all second-hand buses in service should have been equipped with air conditioning and Euro V engines.

In an interview published in our sister paper prior to the 27 May network update, Arriva’s managing director David Kaye had promised that any pending issues were going to be addressed in that update. In this case, the introduction of routes 42 and 37 instead of the X6 with increased frequency of bus number 41 did mitigate the situation but the service is still not coping with the demand during peak hours.

Mr Kaye had also promised that this month the IT system would start functioning properly and that passengers would be able to check their waiting time on the bus stop through the use of mobile texting.