Commuters waiting at the Mowasalat Bus Terminal.
BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: While COP18 shuttle buses leave hotels virtually empty for the Qatar National Convention Center, the Mowasalat Bus Terminus at Grand Hamad Street teems with impatient commuters as very few buses are in service due to the biggest conference Doha is hosting.
Already late for their offices and appointments, commuters who approach Mowasalat staff are shown a notice posted on the bulletin board of the office announcing that they would be ‘reducing the frequencies’ on 19 of their 38 routes.
The notice dated November 30 states the reduction of frequency of bus services by December 1 on routes including numbers 10, 12, 19, 22, 40, 42, 45, 100, 102, 119, 136, 137, 170, 172, 104A, 109, 49, 56 and 34.
“I was really surprised because they announced frequency cuts over the weekend and I didn’t know about the changes in the schedule,” said an Indian shopkeeper, who was waiting for the bus at the terminal for more than an hour.
Illegal private taxi operators lurking near the bus terminus are happily cashing in on the situation as commuters turn to them in desperation. Karwa taxis are also doing a brisk business as there is no dearth of those in need of an urgent ride.
“The problem is not the shortage of buses because they are not using the passenger buses for COP18. There are fewer bus drivers as many Mowasalat drivers are operating hundreds of buses for the conference,” claimed a Karwa driver.
If not for a colleague who passed by, Rodrigo, a regular commuter of bus number 49, would have been two hours late for work.
“The frequency of Bus 49 is every 20 minutes but I waited for an hour in vain. They should have announced it advance,” he said. To make things worse, timings were not given in the changed schedule which left commuters unaware as to when to expect the buses.
“I think I have to wake up very early for the next several days to cope with this,” said Rodrigo.
Around 17,000 delegates from 194 countries are in Doha for the COP18, the biggest conference the city is hosting. The marathon event runs until Saturday.
According to media reports, some 430 shuttle buses have been pressed into service to ferry the delegates to the QNCC and back to hotels. They are stationed at 32 hotels and they also include 24 shuttle buses exclusively plying between the QNCC, where the climate conference is being held, and the Doha Exhibition Centre where the Qatar Sustainability Expo is taking place. The Peninsula
