With just 90 days for the kick-off, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 continues to attract global headlines. The latest was about another world first when last Thursday as many as 1,300 buses ran trips in and around the capital city Doha, in a test of one of the most elaborate transport operations ever mounted for an international event. With more than 1mn people expected to descend on Qatar for the first ever World Cup in the Middle East, the organisers are ensuring that all arrangements are as perfect as they could get, as part of the multi-billion dollar preparations.
The trial run was connected to transporting football fans, arriving for the mega event running from November 20 to December 18, around Doha and between the eight stadiums across Qatar. “This is the most complex transport operations ever mounted for a major sporting event,” said Ahmad al-Obaidly, chief operating officer of Mowasalat, Qatar’s bus and taxi services provider. In the first scrutiny of their years of preparations, organisers tested the schedule for the busiest days of the tournament when about 300,000 fans could be in Doha at the same time.
Hundreds of air-conditioned buses with more than 1,000 Mowasalat drivers role-playing as football fans ran trips to stadiums, metro stations and pickup points. From Al Wakra metro station in the Doha suburbs, the buses plied to Al Janoub Stadium 5km away. Since Al Bayt Stadium, where the opening game will be held on November 20, does not have metro connectivity, hundreds of buses plied the 25km to the nearest station in the new city of Lusail. The buses even made the return journey after midnight to copy conditions for the Group B late night game.
“We want to make sure our plans are going in the right direction,” said mobility operations director Thani al-Zarraa while al-Obaidly said 3,000 buses had been purchased and there would be more than 4,000 on the streets for the World Cup. The company has also doubled its number of drivers to 14,000 for the event. They have been trained in “defensive driving” to avoid on-the-road hazards, the official said. Each bus also has five CCTV cameras monitored at a central command centre.
After the tournament Qatar’s older buses will be given away and as part of its World Cup legacy, it will be “one of the first countries in the world to have a pure electric public transportation service,” said al-Obaidly.
FIFA had announced on Thursday that 2.45mn tickets have now been sold for the Qatar World Cup. Fans from Qatar, the US, England, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the UAE, France, Argentina, Brazil and Germany are leading the ranking of ticket sales by country of residence. The biggest number of allocated tickets were for group-stage matches such as Cameroon vs Brazil, Brazil vs Serbia, Portugal vs Uruguay, Costa Rica vs Germany, and Australia vs Denmark. FIFA also said that late September will see the launch of the last-minute sales phase, following which over-the-counter sales are to start in Doha.
