By Innovation-sa on March 18, 2018 in News
In a move to revolutionize the capital city’s public transport system, Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) announced the launch of 3,500 buses to cover over 5,000 destinations in Riyadh. The announcement comes ahead of the inauguration of Riyadh Metro, one of the world’s largest urban transport ventures, in 2019.
Under the new bus network, modern city buses will entirely replace the Khat Al-Balad (downtown route) services by the end of 2018.
The bus fare will range from SR3 to SR5 to various destinations across Riyadh. To utilize bus services as well as metro trains, commuters will be issued a common pre-paid electronic card.
The new bus network will have buses starting from King Fahd Stadium, east of Riyadh, to the Diplomatic Quarters situated in the west of Riyadh and those operating from Aziziya, south of Riyadh, will have destinations in the north.
In addition to connecting to the new residential districts developing across Riyadh, bus services will also be available to and from metro stations.
The new bus system, which is a program under the King Abdulaziz Public Transport project in Riyadh, will also open four operation and maintenance centers, workshops and store for spare parts, administration office for employees and provide night parking facilities. Several operation control rooms, offices to deal with accidents and facilities to provide training to staff members will also be launched soon.
Over 3,500 SAPTCO buses will be available to cover 5,000 destinations on 300 lanes passing through 1,000 traffic intersections in the capital city. It will also have 750 onboard units, devices to count passengers, traffic signal control systems and 4,000-real time passenger information (RTPI).
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