Public transport revisited

Recently I had the occasion of using the public transport. I always had mixed feelings about this system. It was (not anymore!) a cheap system of transport which used to take you to most parts of the Island. It was and still is unreliable. Yet the other side of the coin is that it was an adventure – as you never really can forecast what is going to happen – and it provided a source of information – it tells you the real agenda (not the one manipulated by editors and other controllers of the media) of the people.

The first surprise was a positive one. I boarded a bus, impeccably clean, where the driver closed the doors of the bus during the journey and provided an air- conditioned bus. The driver of bus number DBY-452 should be commended. I’m identifying the driver as just as I believe in name and shame so do I believe that those outstanding should be commended.

The second surprise is that, in spite of the bla bla that we frequently hear, all other things remained the same. The Valletta terminus is still a shambles reminding one of a Middle East suk and the organisation is still the weakest point.

Four things stand out. These surprise you and hit you in the face. First, after so many plans and press conferences, it is still a dirty area and stinks. Second, that people are still made to alight the buses in mid-street. Thirdly, drivers park wherever they like with the consequence of creating traffic blocks. I had to board my bus in the middle of one of the parking channels as someone just left his bus in the place where our bus was supposed to park. Our bus in turn blocked the channel to all the traffic.

The last point is the management, or rather the absence of management, of the system. When I arrived 7 minutes before my bus was scheduled to leave the Valletta terminus, the bus was still not there. I went to the ‘Dispatcher’s office’ to enquire. The words are in brackets as one needs to use his utmost imagination to describe this shambles as office. I had to interrupt a conversation to get any attention. I was directed to the side of the ‘office’ where a bunch of drivers sitting on plastic soft drinks’ cases were discussing some hot topic. It took an effort to distinguish the dispatcher. The only answer I got was that the bus will materialise.

Two things to note: Consumers are not only paying much higher prices than previous but are paying higher sums of money through taxation to maintain the ADT and higher subsidies. Consumers were made to pay higher prices on the pretext that the system will improve. Very little, if anything has improved, and one could easily say that the last ‘reform’ failed miserably to the consternation of consumers who had again to pay for this failure. The whole system is still dictated by the owners and not by ADT.

Prospects for the future: We’re going to end up with another monopoly. Moreover, unless we start to organise today, the prospects are that even if the equipment were to be completely replaced with more a modern and suitable one, the same systems will persist just like it happened at Mater Dei!