"Jordan Business" ignoring my response on last month's story

It was "interesting enough", as much as disappointing, how non of the points i mentioned in my response on Jordan Business's Magazine last month's cover story were neither commented by any of the magazine's staff to whom the response was sent, nor mentioned and not even commented in this month's edition of the magazine.

If you never tried public transportation, and can't move your self out of that car, just SHUT UP! we dont need your "Rich thoughts" if you consider public transportation for the "lower class".

Physically speaking, the bus riders are in a higher lever than car drivers by the way.

Responding on Jordan Business Magazine's public transportation Cover Story

This month's Jordan Business magazine had an interesting Cover Story about Public Transportation by Zaina Steityeh. That went to tackle several domains in the public transportation. But i felt like commenting on the parts talking about urban public transportation in Amman.

1st of all, I would like to talk a bit about the GAM taking over the control of public transportation in Amman. Which is indeed a move in the right way, as traffic and transportation have been always connected together from an urban point of view, and where-ever you go in this world, you'd always find urban public transportation always in the hand of the city municipalities, both as a regulator and operator, something which is not yet implemented in Amman, despite the fact that the GAM has 13% of the CMTC, the biggest operators in the capital Amman, but they don't really have so-called “weight” in that, and on the contrary, the owners of the CMTC are using that for their benefit, just like when the CMTC tried to convince the GAM to do a “special recommendation” to the licensing department to let them accept the 15 Convema buses (Convema is a non existing brand by the way), which were produced at the free zone by a sister company owned as well by Abu Khader Group, without having ABS (which is a requirement for licensing buses) nor any other minimal safety requirements, and which were put on the black-list by the licensing department. Unfortunately, the buses were licensed accordingly and are operating for a while now. And maybe this story would justify the unnamed source that told the story writer, quoting: “When it's separate, the regulatory body doesn't have a direct link to the bottom line of the operation and will, therefore, not be tempted to take shortcuts, overlook safety precautions or take cost-cutting measures at the expense of the final consumer. Out citizen”.

Anyway, fortunately, this was the only bad effect we have witnessed until the moment from the GAM taking over the regulation of Public Transportation in Amman. On the other hand, we have witnessed a lot of efficiency in planning, especially in the fact that the GAM got convinced that traffic problems should be solved by having a better organized, managed, and attractive urban public transportation (something i have been saying since 2005 anyway!), and that the GAM is willing finally to have a multi-dimensional public transportation, by creating a new backbone of BRT and LRT services. As well as efficiency in other minor things, like re-pricing, when the fuel prices went up, in comparison with the PTRC for example.

Despite that, we are still facing another kind of duplicability in the sector which wasn't mentioned in the article, when it comes to short routes that start from Amman, cross a big part of Amman, and head towards end of routes outside it. As those routes serve a lot of people moving inside Amman, while they are still in the hand of PTRC, and people have no other choice but use those means of transport. Simple examples are the Zarqa buses which are the only ones serving areas like Tabarbour and Marka when trying to head to/from there towards University of Jordan and Western Amman. As well as Raghadan-Salt and Raghadan-Baqaa routes. So we are having routes on main corridors in Amman, serving quite big numbers of people, and are still regulated by the PTRC. Ironically, some of those routes are even served for example by the CMTC which the GAM has a share of 13%!

Moving forward in the article towards the “Diffused Ownership” section. Diffused Ownership might be a headache and problem causer in the sector in general, something i totally agree, especially when it comes to poor routes that link some towns/cities to more remote areas, but the experience showed that companies ownership of routes is not that much better when it comes to urban public transportation. To be more precise, no single company handling urban (or part-urban) public transportation is doing it well, a part from the CMTC (which i will be talking about later), there are also other companies operating their routes in bad manners, with very “rubbished” and unmannered-unmaintained buses, quite very good examples are the very famous Raghadan-Salt buses which are owned by a company called: “Abu Rajouh & Abu Haswa & Co”, Yes! despite being medium sized buses, or so-called “Coaster” buses, those notably dirty, unmaintained, and always with a black cloud coming out of their exhausts buses on this route are ALL owned by a company that cares only to push their vehicles to the limit in order to raise their income! Similar examples are “Ahmad Abul S'oud & Hamad Abu Zaid Co” famous for operating in eastern Amman areas, as well as the very famous rubbished Zarqa buses moving towards most of Amman's areas owned by “Armouti, Ghweiri, & Sawalha Co”. As well as several others. All of those are not owned by individual bus owners, but all of us are having problems with them as bus users, especially when it comes to buses maintenance and safety, as well as quality of service, and non-commitment to routes in some cases, and lets totally forget about schedules and peak hours jams! Thus, I guess that the GAM and PTRC should 1st solve us our problems with those “Fat ownerships” that care only about rapid profit, then start saying Diffused ownership is a problem. And I would have liked it if Zaina Steityeh came down out of her car to the streets, and try some of those operators bad service, and compare it for example to quality bus services provided by a lot of organized Individual Bus owners, just like those operating on routes like Sweileh-Wadi Al-Seer, and Sweileh-Dakhelieh Circle. Routes on which individual bus drivers and owners have agreed on organized service and queuing (with frequencies that reach 1 bus/minute in peak times even!), and routes on which over 90% of the buses are always clean and tidy, and routes like the 2nd mentioned where buses operate up late to 11 PM and beyond 12 midnight in holidays!

I agree, however, with Mr Qudah's point when it comes to Diffused Ownerships in the trucking sector, and i guess that the Ministry of Transport should encourage small and medium projects in this sector to try eliminating diffused ownerships in it. Good models to follow are the ones in Turkey & Eastern European countries, where small & medium companies with 10-15 trucks have a range of operation that reach the shores of the Atlantic! I don't want to get deeper into this at the moment though.

Last but not least, I want to comment on the information mentioned about the CMTC, mainly by its CEO, Mr Moayad Tarawneh, who, with all respect, is either so stupid to know what is really going on in that company behind him, or think that we are all so stupid to know what is going in there in that company by the company's owners he is facading!

What kind of effect does “Diffused Ownership” has on CMTC bad management of operation, as almost at any time in the day, you can find buses of their company roaming empty, to i don't know where, and their drivers refusing to stop and carryout people! (Oh! Or is it that the GAM is paying half of the raise in diesel prices, so to hell with the GAM's money!). And how does “Diffused Ownership” effect the messiness and non existence of scheduled services, and the miserable situation of their buses! And how does “Diffused Ownership” effect a route such as “Raghadan-Sweileh” that they tried to start, with buses leaving once every 40-50 minutes, and that start operating after the end of morning jam at around 9 AM and stop operating before 5 PM!

1st of all, the system they bough with over 1.5 million dollars, which is a combination of fleet tracking and electronic smart-card fare-collection system. Is already late for over 1 year and 4 months now. And its not up and running yet! And wont even be entirely up! As it will be limited to the electronic smart-card fare-collection part, without the fleet tracking part! Noting that over 130 buses (the ones inherited from Asia Transport Co.) were already running a very efficient smart card fare-collection system, with re-chargeable RFID cards, POS charging units, & card validators in all those buses. All of that ever since 2001, and i was my self a heavy user of those as well as tens of thousands others, including my 4 years campus life! So, it wasn't something “we were just dreaming of”, and the CMTC could have just extended the already existing investment by adding more POS and bus validators in their fleet! While when it comes to the fleet tracking part, which i am repeating again IS NOT RUNNING, just in the summer of 2007, the CMTC were offered a “Public Transportation Information System” that enabled entire real-time fleet tracking, automated and dynamic bus scheduling, automated remote control, and Dynamic real time Passenger Information in bus stations and through mobile and internet service, all at less than 30% of the costs they bought this system & up within 4 months, and was REFUSED by the company owners “The Abu Khader's”, claiming that the turkish 1.5 million $ system will be up and no-time, and that they are not in need of all those “extra features”!

Interesting, isn't it!

While on the other hand, since the CMTC are paying 3500 Euro/each digital bus display, can they at least properly turn them ON! The screens installed on their new buses are very unsuitable in shiny conditions, are MOSTLY turned OFF! Malfunctioned! Or simply showing a WRONG ROUTE other than the ones the bus is operating on! While the Yellow displays installed in older buses (Mostly on the ones inherited from Asia Transport Co) are way much better, though they are sometimes malfunctioned or simply turned off!

Thus, the CMTC's investment is wasted as pure as that! Absolutely everything Mr Tarawneh claimed in this interview to be exclusively done by the CMTC is done in a wrong way! I wonder if Mr Tarawneh ever tried even to spend a whole day on his fleet to see how easily can his white shirt capture the dirt in the bus, how some buses have rain dripping from their ceiling in winter, how he can be late at work because his oldest 1999 buses “that he thinks are still pretty new” move in a speed of 25 KMs/h while he is standing near the backseat of the bus with half of the bus's fumes spreading inside the bus, how he would have his head hitting in the ceiling of the bus's door while trying to hope off the new 2008 Mercedes buses which were built by Elba with wrong dimensions and standards, how he can wait in front of his office in Mecca Street waiting for a bus that almost never comes, or a bus that just goes under the Al-Kilo intersection in the tunnel ignoring the masses waiting regularly at the bus stop from where the bus should actually pass, or try to squeeze in between the students in a full bus going From or To the Hashemite University! That his company is serving!
Or even at least spend a day at the so-called maintenance centers where “Consumed Motor Oils” from other AK Automotive centers are used as fresh oil for CMTC's buses.

& can he just name me the so-claimed 42 routes the CMTC is operating! & tell us which are actually running, and which are just fake-outs on the paper!!

Again, its either that he is stupid, or thinks we are stupid, both cases, he is just an employee and a facade that hides out the company owners. & I mentioned also that he made a couple of mistakes in his interview, 1st, the GAM owns 13% of the CMTC and not 20%, the 2nd is the fact that the CMTC is a so-called “consortium” of 3 companies and not 4! which are Al-Thelal (owned by Abu Khader Automotive), Al-Tawfeek (which was also bought by Al-Thelal about a month before the creation of the CMTC), and Asia Transport Co., whose owner withdrew from the company awhile ago because of loads of managerial problems in the way the Abu Khader's where leading the CMTC. So mainly its a takeover not a consortium.

I would have wished if the story owner, Zaina Steityeh, would have investigated more on what is really going on in the streets and on the ground when it comes to urban public transportation, instead of having just some rosy statements for some people that, maybe, never tried to use urban public transportation inside Amman! & maybe even tried to have several rides her self!

Anyway, thank you for the interesting cover story, without it i might not had even wrote this long response that is almost as long as the story it self :)

Conclusion: Will Jordan Ever Get the Public Transportation System it Deserves?
I hope so, but nothing on the ground so far!

JO Magazine turns 5!

5 years of variety and dynamism
5 years of professional journalism
5 years of all kinds of topics, ranging from the Amman bombings to Drugs, from Night life and Night clubs in Amman to Honor crimes, from The Alternative Music movement in Jordan to Porn Cinemas in downtown Amman ... all covered in JO.
5 years of english-written magazines in Jordan (since JO was the 1st!)
5 years of the most serious magazine in Jordan, yet the most hyper dynamic.
5 years of the jordanian magazine that just makes you proud as a jordanian!

Yes, JO Magazine, turning 5 with their 61st issue this month, is a magazine that I'd like to follow up each and every month. And despite the fact that i sometimes (rarely) might not buy it, but like to follow it up. Simply because its a realistic magazine, and its probably the only English written magazine in Jordan that is not oriented towards the elite rich people in Jordan, and rather tackles all sorts of topics from the dynamic Jordanian society, with its goods and bads, and is just an overall looking window of journalism towards all sorts of political, social, economical, cultural, and even taboo issues in jordan. With an alternative professional vision, and many times different than what some people would imagine.

JO is also a good tool for representing Jordan! For example, in a technological conference i participated in here in jordan, I had the chance to meet a peer from the Czech republic, whom i gave JO Magazine. Later that year when i was at the Czech republic, and when discussing several issues about jordan with him, some information i was telling him were replied by him: “I know, I read it in the magazine you gave me, JO Magazine :)”. its realistic, its not telling the people reading it that we are Living Very Well, nor that we are enjoying Luxury in the Jordan Business, but it indeed shows the realistic view of jordan, and all sort of Jordanians more than a venture pulp in a nox :)

and maybe thats why Jordanian bloggers have always discussed about JO Magazine in their posts, and thus later came, as a logical result in JO's journalistic policy, their care in the Jordanian blogosphere in several features as well as their “Super Highway” monthly section.

JO Magazine's ignorance of the "Trust Bus Accident"

After the sad accident with Trust's Aqaba-Irbid bus, and the 25 lives lost in it.
and after several bloggers blogged about the accident and Trust Transport Co.... and others who deleted their posts for one reason or another!

I got a phone call from someone at JO Magazine, who was interested in making a feature about this accident, and asked me several question, some were already answered in my blog post, others were further explained, and yet other were exclusively said in that phonecall.

The person didnt call again, and unfortunatelly, when i bought this month's JO Magazine, the topic was totally ignored, not even a single printed line mentioned this accident, its life loses or any abstracts about the story ,,,, not even in the blogs reaction page!

Interesting!

I'm still wondering, what ever happened to the topic, who took the decision behind not publishing anything about it. Did the company or its owners have a hand in that!?

I wanna know!

Can anyone please tell me! ... or dare to tell me!
and i dont think an answer of "It wasn't that much of an important topic" is either logical or accepted!

A response on Mr Osama Al-Sharif's column in this month's Venture Magazine

Dear Sir,

I've read your article on the last page on this month's Venture Magazine, just to come up with those points that would show you that I totally disagree with you, and that what you wrote contains a lot wrong observation, ignorance, and most of all, things that you made observations on without actually knowing or experiencing them.

1^st of all, urban public transportation in Amman, IS pretty reliable in comparison with the previous years, and most of Amman's areas are linked-out with pretty good, if not excellent in some area, network of urban public transportation, specifically urban city buses, mid-sized buses “that are not that urban in my personal opinion”, and shared taxis or service taxis in the older parts of the capital.

For your information, Mr Osama, all the urban city buses routes in Amman work on a schedule ever since the later 90s, and operate since the hour of 5 AM until the hour of 9 PM or 10 PM. Despite the fact that this static schedule is not really strictly attached to, especially with the traffic madness in Amman that prevent the buses from getting their route destination on time to be able to get back according to the schedule. Urban city buses in Amman used to be operated by 3 companies (Asia, Dhelal, & Tawfeeq), until earlier this year when they united in 1 single company (The CMTC). Except for some new routes in eastern Amman that are being operated by a new company called “Al-Waha” that took over a bunch of routes that were unreliably operated by private coaster buses.

Urban city buses in Amman operate on several “Hot-routes” if i may call, that have specific numbers in case you didn't know either, and on some of those routes e-ticketing is used to pay the bus fair along with the usual manual coin inserter machine, and e-ticketing has been there ever since Asia transport Co introduced it back in 2001, using a smart card similar to the one used for your badge at the company you're working at, if not even more modern than your badge.

Also, on 5 routes of those “Hot-routes” mentioned above, there are special buses for disabled people operating on them... yes, those long buses that you claim that they always cause you headache in traffic, especially when you go through their lane in order to get in-front of 10 other cars on an intersection maybe. Serving the people on routes number 26, 43, 42, 99, and 98. (raghadan – Bayader Wadi Al-Seer, Raghadan – Medical City, Raghadan – Dabouq, Raghadan – The Hashemite University, and Sweileh – The Hashemite University respectively), those buses charge half a ticket for those disable people, and if any disable person is not getting such a bus, he/she will be assisted to ride the bus, and will not be charged for his ride.

On the other hand, note that all the urban city buses take the right most lane while moving on the streets, and its not the driver's fault to get sometimes to the second lane because of a selfish person like you sir who had parked his car on that lane.

Also note that urban city buses' licenses allow them to have a certain number of passengers seated, and another number of passengers standing, since those buses are manufactured for urban transportation provide non-slippery floors, and vertical as well as horizontal hand poles.

2^nd of all, it is the money filled pockets to blame for having some buses not stopping at bus stations, because from my personal experience, bus drivers, of both urban city buses and coaster buses, always tries their best to stop at bus stops ... how come is that, just look at how many bus stops in Amman were moved or took over by building owners, just for the sake to have a parking for their cars in front of their building, or just for thinking like you sir that public transportation is something un-cool. Obvious examples can be found all over Amman, where i remember for example someone who took off the public bus stop on the side of the street in abdoun in the area where bus Nr 27 passes from just to have the street side infront of his villa look cool. Or the terrible gardens street where the bus has no more stops because all the building owners take them out to have parking areas in front of their buildings, or even the construction site on the street between The Sports city intersection and Dakhelieh intersection at the takhasousi hospital, where the landowner took over 4 meters of the street for his construction site, killing by that one of the most jammed bus stops in the area. And by the way, just for answering a section in your column in last May's issue, bus stops are needed near intersections because those are the points of changing a route.

The 3^rd point is about Service white cabs, that in case you cannot observe that well, are the best mean of transportation in the older areas of Amman and their narrow roads, specifically the old mountains of Amman and their old neighborhoods, those are very reliable for getting you from and to those tight neighborhoods and streets to and from down-town. Ah.... I forgot, you go to books@cafe with your friends and buddies in a cool car each coming from western parts and occupy half of the street in front of books@cafe, and not with a very uncool Japaneses or Korean white cab shared with others coming from down-town.

The 4^th point for now, is about mid-size, privately individually owned, public buses, A.K.A coasters. Well, in my own personal opinion, I think that a big part of those are a problem in the public transportation process inside Amman, especially considering the fact that they are not organized, nor scheduled, and the buses are not made for urban transportation that may include a standing ride. Which makes them rule breakers when it comes to passengers standing in the bus, something that the traffic police heavily enforce. But still, for many, those are considered pretty reliable means of transportation, especially on the routes where the passengers are more distributed among the times of the day, and where a big number of buses serve on those routes, making the process pretty speedy and reliable for the passengers on several routes.

The 5^th point, specifically about the drivers of public transportation, and since it seems that your an enough consumer of this country so that you do not even know, nor even care to know, what are the driving license levels in jordan, and what are the rules to obtain them .... I wonder how you took your license! Because this is a main subject in the private license's theory exam!

License Category 3: is the private driving license, which you most probably have, as well as I do.

License Category 4: is the public plate driving license for small cars, specifically saying Taxi drivers and Service white cabs drivers, for obtaining this license, you should have completed one whole years since obtaining the Category 3 license, and not being younger than 21 years old, as well as passing the category's exams.

License Category 5: is the mid-size public plate vehicles driving license, in our case, the coaster buses drivers. To obtain this license, you should have completed 2 whole years since obtaining the Category 4 license, which implies not being younger than the age of 23. as well as passing the category's exams.

License Category 6A: is the big public plate vehicles driving license, in our case, urban city buses and coaches. To obtain this license, you should have completed 2 whole years since obtaining the Category 5 license, which implies not being younger than the age of 25. as well as passing the category's exams.

Hence, Mr osama, the drivers of buses and cabs are not teenagers as you claim, and are not really anyone, as you might have seen some of your friends kids while graduating from school driving those huge 4x4 jeeps crazily on the streets with the whole gang getting out of the car's windows and sun roof. And in case any of them drives crazily, is for one simple reason, which is that, the entire driving process is going crazy in this country. And must be resolved

6^th, and most important of all, let me just say, that you have no right, by any mean, or any way, to say what you have said about the users of urban public transportation in Amman. And specifically buses, being either urban city buses, or the private mid-sized buses, or the so-called “coasters”.

For your information, there are hundreds of thousands of people that use buses on daily basis inside the Greater Amman Area, and yet more hundreds of thousands using them on non-daily basis. People from both genders, from all ages, from different social backgrounds, school students, university students, public sector employees, private company employees, project managers, banking sector employees, shopkeepers, medical doctors, nurses, militants, policemen and women, university professors, software developers, sales and advertising agency employees .... etc. residents of Jabal Al-Hussein, Abdoun, Shmeisani, Wehdat, Sahab, Bayader Wadi Al-Seer, Jabal Al-Taj, Tla'a Al-Ali, Rabieh, Jabal Al-Jofeh, Tabarboor, Jubeiha, Jabal Amman, Lweibdeh, Nazzal, Sweileh, Khelda, Dabouq .... etc.

You can't just shot it like that and say they are all “low-level / low-class” people ..... You can't just say that they all are living in an unhealthy environment, and that their usage of public transportation is increasing the traffic jam that you suffer with your big car ruining our streets!

I'm a car owner my self, and i my salary enables me to buy yet another new car instead of my 8 years old car, but I do use public transportation on daily basis, to and from work, and in all my business outs during working weekdays, I use the car only during the weekend or hangouts that i think i'll get late back home. Since, yes, I'm that uncool enough to go to my favorite hangout in a bus!

So simply, instead of trying to be part of a process that would get people out of their cars for some walking to the nearby bus station, and to let them use the bus, which i believe is more reliable in terms of getting on-time during rush hours than a car, you simply blame public transportation for getting this traffic jam on the street, and start giving us lessons in urban sciences and how cool can an underground metro be, without knowing the topographical requirements of having an underground metro.

Man, if you know business, talk about it ... if you don't know what is urbanity, keep living in your urban-less high-class neighborhood and leave your theories away from the other 2 millions of this capital.

7^th, with regards to the PTRC, in my very personal opinion, the PTRC made a lot of good things for the sector at a certain point when it come to a lot of regulations that it had made. But, the PTRC, again in my opinion and from another point of view, is taking a major part in not letting the sector go further into the right direction, the PTRC is still in a mess, they still don't know what is really going out there in the street, they still have visions that Europeans used to have in the 80s when it comes to transportation management, in addition to the fact that most of their information are wrong, redundant, and inaccurate, and mostly theoretical! Most probably because a lot of people in the PTRC have nothing to do with public transportation. And know nothing about it. And regarding their new service through their website, you can read a review I wrote about it when it was lunched here. and you will discover how inaccurate their information are about Jordan's public transportation sector.