We do have short memories. I really cannot understand the people who want the old public transport system back. “I preferred the old drivers rude as they might have been at times, or badly dressed with earrings or tattoos. They got us where we wanted to go and back home in the shortest possible time. We never waited too long at Valletta. There was always a bus available. We could wait on the bus out of the sun. Now CHAOS,” said a commentator online.
While I can understand people getting really angry at the current situation, and the points mentioned above are relevant, we don’t really want to regress do we? It seems that the latter is what some of the previous bus drivers would like to see and are fuelling the chaos by not turning up, or making inane comments to the media. However, many of the problems are not down to the drivers’ no show.
As a driver of a car and a pedestrian, I am certainly grateful that I will no longer be stuck behind a bus in my car, or walking up Tower Road from the Ferries, having to inhale black, poisonous fumes belched from the buses.
Besides, on the few occasions I have travelled by bus in the past, I must say that I was not impressed. Torn and dirty seats, filthy windows and full jerry cans in the front seats, possibly with petrol!
As for the drivers, they smoked, drove erratically, used their mobile phones while driving, were dressed, or rather undressed, shabbily and often had long chats with some sidekick (sometimes an inspector) while driving.
Of course they were not all awful, there were some decent and respectable drivers. Those are probably the ones that are driving the Arriva buses now. Nevertheless, we did have some awful thugs who used to bully the elderly and even beat up tourists, so please for those with sudden memory lapses, as rightly angry as you are right now, we do no want the old attitudes back.
Put the buses in a museum by all means, but not on the roads. As for the drivers, I would not want anyone to lose their job, but if one provides a public service one has to abide by the rules, or face the consequences. If Arriva has gone back on its word, let the GWU sort it out. That is what it is there for.
Something certainly had to be done about our public transport system. The PM was right to say that no previous administration had got this far with public transport reform. Unfortunately, though, we seem to have been landed with an almighty cockup, at least so far.
I had commented in this column that experts had cited poor management and planning in the Valletta project and it is becoming increasingly apparent that though this administration is good at pushing things through, it falls down badly on consultation, planning and delivery.
Apparently, Arriva did not carry out a pilot study before implementing the changes to the bus routes and it looks like no research was carried out. Did the government not stipulate these requirements?
The people having a really hard time are the commuters who need the buses and have no choice but to use public transport. Sure, the drivers not showing up must have disrupted the service. However, buses arriving late was not the only complaint by commuters.
It looks like getting to Mater Dei and the university has become unnecessarily cumbersome and many other routes seem to be affecting commuters negatively. People are having to wait too long with no shelter and the new routes are also causing major inconvenience. All this is unacceptable. That is why some are saying "Ahjar meta konna aghar " (It was better when we were worse off) and one can see their point.
The Air Conditioning not working must be very uncomfortable in this heat and the electronic signage is a minor inconvenience, but mainly buses arriving on time and getting people to their destinations without too many detours seem to be the biggest problems that need sorting.
Next is the lack of adequate shelter, especially at the main terminals. There really is no excuse for that lack of planning. That I believe was not down to Arriva. Why did the government have to wait for people to complain (a woman actually fainted and had to be taken to hospital) for temporary shelters to be put up at the Valletta terminus and some outlying interchanges notably Qormi/Marsa and Pembroke?
If it had not been so keen to chop down all the trees at the new Valletta terminus, there might not have been such a big problem. Anyway, the authorities have had plenty of time to prepare for the arrival of Arriva. Permanent, adequate shelters should have been in place by last Sunday. It is going to take six weeks for a canopy to be built at the bus interchange in Bugibba/Qawra.
Now for the new buses. It is not because “drivers were taking some time to learn how to operate the sophisticated buses” as Arriva CEO, David Martin told the press. Considering the shambles with the AC and electronic signage, how sophisticated can a ‘new’ bus be? The problem is that they are too wide and the bendy ones too long for our roads. The drivers do not have much room to manoeuvre so have to gingerly steer towards the middle of the road.
On Thursday, another bus got stuck in Kirxa Hill in St Julians, going towards Balluta Bay, which is out of bounds for heavy vehicles. There were also reports of other buses having problems negotiating narrow roads all over the island.
Now the Valletta Business Community has joined the fray and is complaining that the changes introduced by Arriva mean people do not have to visit Valletta as often as before to get to their end destination.
“This, along with ongoing works and the ever-decreasing parking spaces, was leading customers to shy away from the capital and choosing other areas more accessible by car,” said its president, Reginald Fava.
Well the fact that people need not visit Valletta unless they have to is no bad thing. But for the ones that do want to shop in Valletta the lack of parking spaces, or adequate car parking facilities, is a major problem and that definitely must have made an impact on businesses in the city. However, if Arriva does become efficient that might bring shoppers back rather than push them away
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