The MENA Centre for Transport Excellence held a variety of events and activities in 2018 including training sessions and workshops covering diverse public transport issues in the region and beyond.
Events included six open calendar programmes and three in-house training programmes for transport organising bodies, the Centre also provided new training materials introduced as part of the UITP programme, in addition to compiling several types of research and studies relating to public transport in the MENA region.
“As per the plan set, the open calendar programmes included training courses such as building capacity (building urban transport leaders), service excellence, funding, public-private partnership, and taxi operations,” said Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, RTA Board Member cum Chairman of the Coordinative Committee overseeing the MENA Centre for Transport Excellence.
“The internal training programmes included the following: upgrading public transport in Madinat, Mecca and Riyadh carried out over three tracks: principles of public transport, principles of taxi transport, and the principles of urban bus transport.”
The internal training programs included a training course for Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority. Which covered topics like planning urban transport, data collection, public transport matrix & benchmarks, integrated urban transport planning, and sustainability in design and construction (codes, standards and best practices of the industry).
“RTA pays considerable attention to the centre and offers it all sorts of financial, marketing and administrative support, to ensure the success of events, plans and centre’s strategies, which aim at promoting the culture of excellence in public transport.
“Our participation in the training courses has generated a positive impact as the MENA Centre for Transport Excellence is always keen on keeping abreast of the latest developments of public transport. It also keeps pace with the modern strategies applied in establishing entities tasked with regulating public transport operators in modern cities worldwide,” added Al Mulla.
Research and Study
“The centre also carries out research and studies about an array of public transport topics such as the Public Transport from a user’s perspective. It revolves around understanding the conceptions and expectations of users of public transport,” said Abdul Aziz Malik, Chairman of the Higher Committee of the MENA Centre for Transport Excellence.
“Such studies are focused on the background of the semi-parallel transport along with recommendations about the policy of the MENA region (MENA transport information report for 2018). It is a reference document for information and performance matrix in the MENA region and the MENA transport economy. The study seeks to understand various business models of public transport in the region,” he added.
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