Transportation regulator ready with short-term plan to address sector problems

AMMAN — The Land Transport Regulatory Commission (LTRC) Director General Marwan Hmoud on Wednesday briefed Prime Minister Hani Mulki on a short-term work plan to remedy the public transportation system’s problems, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The plan includes 17 projects and measures to be implemented in Amman, Zarqa, Irbid and Madaba, the country’s largest cities with chronic transportation problems, especially after the country hosted millions of refugees and guest labour. 

Most significant of these are plans licensing the school transportation companies to serve school children, opening bus routes that take people to neighbourhoods inside cities, setting a public transport fund to lure investments into the sector and other measures to streamline the services in the targeted cities. 

The measures include establishing stops to receive and discharge passengers, organising queues at bus terminals, designating special lanes for buses and other public transportation vehicles and applying the auto-park service within cities. 

The oversight agency also plans to offer incentives and exemptions to private cars that carry more than two passengers during work days, licensing online apps (such as Uber) to transport passengers and regulate the jobs of fare collectors and drivers of public buses.

Mulki's visit to the LTRC came as a follow-up on his June 29 visit, during which he was briefed on the challenges facing the transportation sector in the Kingdom.