Look Look, An Alien!

Bus, Ahoy!

A 40-foot long, green-coloured ‘creature’ with six wheels and two glass doors, which open and close on their own, carrying a whole load of smiling human beings inside it has been seen moving on Qatar roads over the past three days. It was first spotted at about 10.30 am on Sunday.

Some eye witnesses believe it to be an alien.

For longtime residents of this country, where public transport (despite the scanty taxis) was virtually still a myth, the Karwa bus, which started plying on roads as part of the Mowasalat bus service launched on Sunday, was nothing less than a show-stopper.

Pedestrians halted their walks to watch the bus’ doors open and close at bus stops. In awe, they smiled and pointed fingers at the bus while mumbling something to the men standing near them.

Speeding cars on the road slowed down to sneak a peek at the buses and the gleeful passengers inside.

While some of them honked incessantly, not knowing how to react to a huge slow-moving vehicle that stops every ten minutes to pick up and let off people.

Umesh Kumar, a painter, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, India, who got on the No.33 bus at Shara Kharaba to get to the Industrial Area where he works, had his eyes glued to one of the automatic glass doors.

Every time the bus stopped he would take a step back, away from the door, as if it would bite him. And when it closed again, his eyebrows would raise way up, his eyes would widen. Then he would look around, wondering, “How did the door open on its own? No one even touched it.”

Kumar had to be taken to the driver’s seat to be shown it wasn’t rocket science that the air-tight doors opened and closed at the press of a button situated next to the steering wheel.

Many passengers ignored the Filipino driver’s plea of “Ticket, buy your ticket,” as they got on the bus, saying to each other, “Don’t worry, the conductor will come to our seat,” which usually is the case in countries like India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

“No, no. No conductor will come to your seat,” the driver would tell them. “When you get on the bus, you buy the ticket (worth QR2 per journey) from me and then go to wherever you want to sit,” he would explain, patting the ticket machine attached right beside his seat.

Some didn’t get the concept of the bus stopping only at a designated stop, nearly 100 of which have been marked with light green-coloured sign boards stating ‘Bus Stop’ along the two routes – Al Fardan Centre to City Centre via Corniche and Al Fardan Centre to Salwa Industrial Area – that have been launched till now.

They wanted the bus to stop exactly where they wanted to get off - a request that was very politely refused. “The bus will stop only at a bus stop,” the driver said. “Not before, not after. Not for anyone.”

The concept is new for most of those who would be taking advantage of the bus service, which starts at 5 am and continues till 11 pm every day. But it was pretty clear that in no time they would get used to it.

After all, the air-conditioned luxury bus service to help them commute in and around Doha for half the price they used to pay in taxis is nothing less than “heavenly”.

“It’s very nice,” Kumar said, smiling uncontrollably. “Look. Look at all the taxis,” he laughed, “they’re all empty.”

Mohamed Noor of Bangladesh standing nearby in the crowded bus quickly joined in the fun pointing at the empty taxis in Shara Kharaba and laughing. “These taxi drivers were very rude with us. They would charge us QR 5, sometimes even six, per person to take us to the Industrial Area. And they never dropped us to where we wanted to go, but just about anywhere they deemed fit in the area,” said Noor, an auto mechanic in Salwa, who earns QR 600 per month.

Noor, who lives in Shara Kharaba and travels to the Industrial Area every day for work, said paying QR 5 was “not too much of a problem as long as they didn’t have to tolerate the taxi drivers’ attitude.”

“But that was before,” he said. “Now with this bus service, the taxi drivers can go take a walk. I’ll travel in QR 2, in space, and in air-condition.”

Noor said he had never felt better when he refused “almost seven taxis” offering to take him to the Industrial area for QR3. “I told them, ‘I’ll pay you only what the bus takes, take me or take your car away from my face’.”

Filipino Jonald Polenio, a store keeper, said it was “high time” that residents of Qatar, who could not afford to own a car, were given the option to smile while commuting. “The buses are comfortable. The tickets are reasonable. And as promised, if they come every 20 minutes, there’s nothing more we could have asked for,” said Polenio.

Polenio’s fellow countryman, Frederik Sicutan, an auto technician, said, “Finally, we won’t have to wait for hours in the sun for a taxi. Even if we have to wait 20 minutes at a bus stop, at least we’ll be sure it’s just going to be 20 minutes and not longer.”

Syed Abrar, an Indian, who runs a business of excavators in Qatar, rode the bus on Sunday “just for kicks.”

“It’s a big day,” he said. “I just wanted to ride the bus to see how it is,” he said.

Abrar, who stays in Daffna, took a bus from Al Fardan Centre to the Industrial Area, back to Al Fardan Centre, then No.76 to City Centre via Corniche.

“I’ll take a taxi from City Centre to go home. It won’t cost me more than four riyals,” he said.
Abrar, who owns a car, said he “wouldn’t mind taking the bus” on his off day just to sit in the bus and go around the city - something you “can’t do while driving” in Qatar.

“The bus service will turn out to be a great success,” he said. “Only if the drivers don’t drive so slowly,” he laughed, adding, “But it’s probably because they’re new. They’ll speed up gradually, I hope.”

For Sardarullah Khan, a Pakistani construction worker, the bus service is plain “bliss.”

In Qatar for five years, Khan, who earns only QR500 a month, said he could never afford a taxi. So he’d take the old ancient looking buses, which were without air-conditioners and had broken seats and ran from Al Fardan Centre to the Industrial Area every hour, at QR1 per ride.

“Or else, I’d walk it, no matter how far the destination was,” he said.

The Mowasalat on Sunday gave Khan a gift he was never expecting in his life – of a tad bit of comfort.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s all welcome Qatar into the world of public transport.

Yes, it’s almost the end of the year 2005. But what the heck! Better late than never.