A number of Jeddah residents have demanded that the governorate to speed up the implementation of the public transport project for the city which was approved by the Council of Ministers.

They told Arab News that Jeddah is in great need of the launch of the transport project as the city’s public transport is limited to taxis and buses only on certain routes.

Citizens said the launch of the public transport project will provide flexibility and smoothness to the traffic movement and will decrease traffic accidents in addition to meeting the future needs of the city.

Saeed Al-Mohammadi, Naif Al-Saeed and Tarif Al-Hazimi said citizens and residents who don’t own cars use public transport such as taxis and buses, because of the limited nature of public transport.

Matouq Al-Zahrani, Saad Al-Bakri and Hussein Al-Basha said providing modern public transportation to keep up with Jeddah’s development is important because the city is expanding both horizontally and vertically. With this view, establishing modern transportation means will present a quantum leap to ease traffic congestion in the city and reduce traffic accidents.

Riddah Al-Maliki and Malik Al-Omari agreed, saying the launch of the public transport projects in Jeddah will have a positive effect on the city with regard to reducing traffic accidents and solve the traffic congestion.

Official spokesman for the Jeddah municipality Abdulaziz Al-Ghamdi said the Council of Ministers approved SR45 billion for the public transport project. He told Arab News that the number of Jeddah residents stands at 3.8 million. This number is expected to increase to 6.2 million in 2033, he said, adding that the municipality is planning to introduce a transport system that will keep up with the growth of the governorate to make it an attractive place to live in, work and visit.

The municipality’s plan includes a highway network and developing alternative transportation means to improve movement in the governorate. He said the municipality has assigned a number of local and international companies to design plans and comprehensive views for the public transport project in Jeddah that meets the current and future needs of the city’s residents and visitors in all areas within the jurisdictional border of the municipality.

Al-Ghamdi said the performance of current and future transport projects will be evaluated and that comprehensive plans will be drawn to assist in the completion of the project’s scheme. The project will be completed by 2030.

Spokesman for the municipality said the project will cover all the streets in Jeddah and emerging and current technology will be taken into consideration. He said the plans of the public transport project include light trains, the metro bus and railway lines as the future means of transportation.

He said the goals of the project are represented in emphasizing the role of Jeddah as the main gateway for the two Holy Mosques, in addition to supporting the city’s economy through improving goods transportation movement. The project aims to increase the use of public transport, and provide easy and cost-effective transport. This will decrease the number of accidents and deaths.