There is one issue that is escaping many people in this Arriva crisis.

Things have now changed drastically: Arriva is now definitely private sector, not an extension of a government department. All this posturing and ordering about must ultimately stop for Arriva is a private company with a big public service contract.

Let’s clarify more this statement: before the arrival of Arriva, the bus service was actually a private sector investment, because the buses were owned by the bus drivers and not by the government. Nevertheless, the bus drivers relied heavily on the government for a hefty subsidy while taking extreme care to be very niggardly as to re-investment, refurbishment, care and upkeep of their buses, etc.

We all remember how it was the government which time and again came forward to enable a gradual rejuvenation of the fleet (mostly through the purchase of discarded buses many times fourth hand). Otherwise buses were never made amenable to today’s requirements – no airconditioning, high steps, difficult environment.

The bus service was not government-owned, but it could have made a better show if it had been.

All this has changed with the advent of the new Arriva system. Arriva is a private sector company, working to make a profit and balancing cheap tickets with economies of scale considerations. The previous government imposed upon the company a new and more extended coverage and duration of the service.

All this, the company must have factored in when it put in its tender. This is a 10-year contract and the company may not have envisaged making a profit the first year, but it must have surely planned on doing so in the long term.

Since then, as we all know, the company has had more than its share of misfortune or bad luck. It was deserted by around half its workforce in the first day of operations.

The company has never spoken out in public about its problems: it changed its Malta managers more than some people change the shirts on their backs. It brought in more and more buses when it became clear it had not planned for such a patronage. It left many of the innovations it had promised by the wayside as it tried to concentrate on getting the basic things right first: proper routes, keeping to the timetable, and ironing out the kinks in the (mostly government-induced) system.

The many mishaps over the past months have given it a very bad public image. Nevertheless, the buses are air-conditioned, a blessing in the hot season. With some exceptions the drivers are courteous and far better behaved than their predecessors. The buses are relatively speaking keeping to the timetables with none of the shambles of the past. And middle-management is at last getting to grips with the workforce.

The results are there: whatever people may say, patronage is on the up and up. The system has coped fairly well with the record influx of tourists in the peak season. And tourists wonder at the cheapness of our tickets even as they complain that Maltese patrons get theirs even cheaper.

Then came the bendy-buses firestorm. Once again, all the past (mostly political) prejudices came out and to the fore. Boris Johnson’s jibe about having palmed off London’s bendy-buses to Malta when he got rid of them from the London streets was aired again and again.

People who have never got on an Arriva bus, including and especially the politicians and the policy makers, pontificated on the three buses that caught fire while the company, perhaps unwisely, hinted it could have been arson.

There is an independent inquiry on and we all await the results.

But some points need to be made.

First of all, at least according to some information, the buses that caught fire were not imports from China as many people seem to think, but come from a German renowned make.

Secondly, one sees bendy-buses or their equivalent in action in most cities around the world and they seem none the worse for their use.

It may be, however, that it is not considered prudent to use them on routes which include steep inclines, such as the Mellieha hill. On the contrary, it could also be they can be retained for the mostly level Valletta to St Julian’s route.

Thirdly, it is also a fact that while Arriva in its first months seemed to have attracted a newer kind of driver, the bulk of its present workforce seem to have come from the preceding regime – and it shows. There is a general lack of care by the drivers for the bus they are driving and by the company itself for the proper maintenance buses require. The old system bus drivers used to care for their buses even if these were on their last legs. The present breed gets on and drives off, many times without a proper handover before and after usage.

This also relates to the many accidents involving buses and the traffic jams in key places where two bendy-buses cannot really pass against each other, like at St Julian’s. The bendy-bus drivers have a lot of driving experience so it could be just their being bolshy and damn-all that leads to traffic jams and crashes.

And one must also mention the atrocious driving by many drivers in Malta and the way some people seem to park.

Of course, there are other players in the field. It is true that riding at the back of bendy-buses can be likened to a roller-coaster ride but many times that is due to the bad state of the roads. So instead of ordering bendy-buses off the roads, the government would do better to make the roads a better ride for all.

Having now ordered the bendy-buses off the roads and Arriva having been forced to take on the added expense of hiring tourist coaches, as one waits for the conclusion, promised for today, of the inquiry about the bendy-buses, one wonders if it will be the company that will be forced to take on itself this additional expense or if it is the government that will make up for that.