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National Express to open Bahrain office

MANAMA, April 20, 2015

British multinational public transport company National Express is setting up a regional office in Bahrain to access other public transportation opportunities in the GCC.

The company's international division operations director Mark Kipling yesterday told the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication, that the office should be up and running in about three weeks and would have a team of around 20 people.

Talking on the sidelines of the "Great British Advanced Engineering and Innovation" event at the Ritz--Carlton Bahrain, Hotel and Spa, Kipling said the company chose Bahrain because of its business-friendly environment, skilled local workforce, regional connectivity, tried and tested regulations and low- operating costs.

Bahrain Public Transport Company, the new public bus operator in the kingdom, is a joint venture between National Express and Bahraini firm Ahmed Mansour Al Aali.

Kipling said the newly launched bus service would be developed into a smart, high-tech operation featuring a control centre, which would use "information inflow to streamline operations, safeguard assets, accelerate decisions, and extend passenger services".

He said the service that officially started from the first of this month would be reviewed and tweaked on an ongoing basis, as passenger feedback came in.

"We have been talking to the people who use the buses to find out what changes they would like to the service... People have said they would like more bus stops, route changes, more frequent buses and we are working on it," he said.

According to Kipling, bus users had said they were satisfied with the quality of the buses, including seats, air-conditioning and cleanliness.

"We have introduced special facilities for special needs passengers, surveillance cameras, free WiFi in the bus."

A key change from before, he said is the different sized buses being deployed to fit different routes and requirements, including small buses manufactured by British company Optare, medium-sized buses and the large (standard) buses manufactured by German company MAN."

"The Optare buses are mainly for the narrow roads of Muharraq and we have got four of them already," he said.

Nearly 77 buses are currently deployed and 140 buses will be in operation when the service is fully functional, said Kipling.

"An automated ticketing system will be rolled out from August with a smartcard similar to the "Oystercard" in UK offering more savings and convenience to passengers."

The new bus network will have a total of 35 routes over 14 zones covering all the major areas of the country. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | express | office | national |

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