Tribune News Network
Doha
The Doha Metro network is ready to handle 500,000 expected daily passengers during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which is nearly five to six times its current ridership, said Minister of Municipality and Qatar Rail CEO HE Dr Abdulla bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al
Subaie.
Speaking at Qatar Rail’s recent town hall meeting titled ‘Safe and Effective Crowd Management at Metro Stations’ in the presence of representatives from a large group of partner organisations and stakeholders, Subaie said, "More than 5,000 people have been mobilised to support in delivering the event, with 1,800 dedicated staff trained to manage crowds outside the stations, who will play a key role in the rail network’s crowd management strategy.”
Other measures taken to ensure the safety and smooth flow of passengers in and around stations include installing line barriers at all 37 stations, advanced monitoring systems for managing incidents and emergencies, and a minute-by-minute simulation model for ridership at each station, in addition to several other scenarios planned.
For his part, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SCDL) Director General Yasir Jamal said, "In Qatar, we love challenges and we have accepted many of them in the previous years. One of them is delivering the metro network in a very short time and we were lucky to have it up and running by 2019. Last year, we tested the network with Qatar Rail and have broken records in some of the events such as at the Lusail Stadium, where Qatar Rail has been able to manage, safely and securely, up to 47,000 fans without anyincidents.”
The exceptional performance level in those tests is in part the result of training more than 4,000 staff for almost 100,000 hours to date, which Keolis Group International CEO Bernard Tabary said have been trained to handle all sorts of situations and interactions with all sorts of passengers.
"We feel that the interaction of our staff with passengers is one that will hopefully leave them with a positive experience during the event,”he said.