Team Doha Metro earns praise with excellent service for World Cup

The reputation of Doha Metro staff have risen to stardom levels among FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 fans and tourists, who have heaped praise on them while lauding the pivotal role that Qatar Rail is playing in ensuring smooth transportation to stadiums and various tourist destinations.
“We are glad that our determination and dedication pay us back,” a metro staff member at Al Wakra station told *Gulf Times. “We earn much praise everywhere while serving passengers.”
For the Doha Metro staff, serving at the stations is not a just a job.
“We are proud that we facilitate the smooth organising of a crucial component of the mega event,” said another staff member, on duty at Umm Ghuwailina station. “We enjoy guiding the fans, managing the crowd and checking the cards. This can’t be smoothly done without dedication and attention. Passion, rather than anything else, drives us.”
The Doha Metro serves fans 21 hours a day from Saturday to Thursday and 18 hours on Friday, with shorter train headway times and increased operational capacity and more than 5,000 additional staff deployed to serve the tournament.
Abubakr Abbass, a 23-year-old metro staff member from Kenya, drew much attention while using a creative method of directing people to the metro station.
His video of guiding the fans while sitting on a tennis-umpire chair and armed with a large foam finger and a megaphone went viral on social media.
The Kenyan was later invited as a special guest at the match between England and the US at Al Bayt Stadium.
Abbas's performance had a wide impact on the staff, with most of the stations started to witness staff members dancing and singing while managing the crowd in a creative way.
Various catchphrases like “Metro? This way”, “Stadium? This Way”, “Airport? This Way” and “Fan Zone? This Way” started to strike a chord with the fans and tourists.
“Many (commuters) echo our announcements and love to take selfies with us while heading to the stations or exiting,” said a metro man at Al Bidda station.
“They are doing the job amazingly and make things easy for us,” said Canadian fan Chris Dorrington. “The credit of ensuring smooth transportation goes to the metro staff.”
“Qatar’s metro is much nicer than most of the metros across the world,” noted Abraham Schewel while praising the services of metro and its staff. “It’s a nice place to see people and cheer for the teams.”
The Doha Metro and the staff are prepared to deal with any expected influx of crowds during the tournament, with the number of trains having been increased from 75 to 110 for continuous service during the World Cup.
As part of the preparations, training programmes and drills were held ahead of the tournament.