Unless a thorough revamping is effected, Qatar’s commuters are not going to benefit from a number of public transport bus services being operated across Doha and some of its immediate neighbourhoods.
Owing to the unscientific schedules of many of these services, especially most of the circular services, the passengers are compelled to take other options to meet their travel requirements.
It has been more than a decade since proper public transport buses were launched in the country. Before that a few non-airconditioned buses of the Doha Municipality operated nominal services to a handful of places like Al Jemaliyah, Abu Hamour and Industrial Area.
Though the Mowasalat buses have been operating through the same route all along, not many bus users, it seems, are aware of the areas where their services cover.
Recently some bus passengers were seen complaining at the Asian Town that if they took one of the circular services (301) to reach the city area, they would be forced to spend more time travelling as the bus runs within the Mesaimeer area, going to the Barwa City and Religious Complex before proceeding to the Gulf Cinema area in Doha.
“Except for Thursday evenings and Fridays, not a single passenger is seen boarding the service from the Religious Complex area,” said one of those passengers.
Similarly, passengers feel Bus numbers 49 and 94 waste a lot of time on their present routes unnecessarily. “Why should a passenger to Najma from Umm Ghuwaliana need to  travel through the Mathar Qadheem and Al Hilal areas and waste their precious time in the bus,” asked an Asian expatriate.
As is usually seen along the whole course of 301/302 circulars, 49 and 94 are mostly found operating with one or two passengers on their entire route.
Passengers are also questioning the wisdom of operating such services, using long buses. “It is high time such routes are operated using either mini vans or buses having a capacity of up to 25 seats,” a regular commuter suggested.