That secret agreement was signed in a garage in Qormi between Joey and a group of the old bus drivers three days before the election. They were meeting there during the night.

Il-Labour sejf ghal-business.

Those bendy buses are used in many countries and if such problems ever existed the manufacturers would find a fix in no time at all.

Public transportation is a serious business and safety is not toyed with.

Arriva was supposed to have received a ‘technical report’ following the burning buses.

Exactly and I can almost guess who the main ‘shareholders’ will be!

It’s just far too difficult to ascribe it to coincidence when the ruling party have a long history of going to great lengths in order to get their way.

Seeing as the Labour Party have been on the offensive against Arriva from before it even launched, I really wouldn’t put it beneath them.

Dawn tal-Labour kollha minn wara jirragunaw.

Issa nistennew u naraw x`fiha r-“rowdmep” ta kif se solvu l-problemi ta` transport.

– It took a lot of guts to tackle the uncouth old bus owners and to rid us of the belching and dangerous ‘ fabriki tal Kancer’ that they drove.
– Only 13% of the population used the old service – completely out of proportion with the mayhem created by the mainly non users..
– The subsidy given to Arriva was equivalent to what it was before with the difference, that in Arriva’s case it was capped, whilst under the old system it increased in accordance to losses made, which was basically year on year.
– Arriva buses have euro five engines, seats that allow any one over 5 ft 3 ins to sit comfortably, are air conditioned and have a tilting low flooring allowing wheel chairs and pushchairs to be wheeled on to the buses.
– Improved schedules to previously badly served destinations.
– A first class airport service.
– Uniformed and better behaved drivers.
– A vastly superior ticketing system.
– Tackling the monopolistic and limited bus system in Gozo, and delivering a first class service in its stead, was given short drift, where the locals seem to be more preoccupied with tunnels and bridges.

True both Transport Malta and Arriva got a number of things wrong but nothing the previous administration wouldn’t have put right in time.
It all boiled down to finance and the reluctance of commuters to pay a fair price for a good service. Tinkering with the routes and the introduction of the bendy buses were both cost cutting exercises.
Arriva’s gravest mistake, and given their experience it is unforgivable, is to have accepted the deal in the first place. So confident were they of delivering that they also accepted heavy fines in case of non delivery.

What is undeniable is that given Arriva’s reputation everybody expected them to deliver. This explains why the opposition, the local councils, the NGOs etc, took Transport Malta’s consultation exercises so lightly and let loose when things started to go wrong.