Public transport in Kuwait

If there is any place on earth where public transport is not used by its citizens it would be Kuwait. Huge expensive cars are the norm and every person with a drivable age has one. Kuwait has well planned roads and hence so far has no major traffic issues unlike Dubai.

Public transport which means buses comes in 3 models and colour combinations - run by 3 different companies (govt. owned). They run uniterupted carrying maids, labourers, lowly paid white collar workers and me.

The buses are not as clean as in the UAE so i do sanitise my hands once i reach office or home. btw i used to do this even before the H1N1 compliance came into effect this year. Colleagues in the bank had a strange expression when they came to know that i used the buse to commute to office. probably i am the only one in our department who commutes by public transport.

the buses are driven mostly by egyptian or indian drivers and my co-passengers are indians, philipinos and arabs. the fee is anominal 200 fils (slightly over AED 2 or Rs 32). but for students its free of charge..something similar to the dscounted rates in India.

Students and anybody who can get away as a student travel for free. Drivers hate to stop at bus stops that has only students waiting to board the bus. As a rule they dont stop...and lately these student victims have started hurling stones. Its become a bit dangerous these days ..with a few such incidents leading to broken glass windows.

If the policy is to allow students for free, then it should be followed. there is no justification for going against this as most of the time the buses run with barely a few passengers and at peak hours the bus will be fully seated and a few passengers would be standing. Scenes like in India where passengers hang around bus doors like a beehive does not happen here.

lately am happy....a new set of buses have been introduced on my route...so i get to travel in cleaner buses. Someone at the bus company has not yet inspected the buses i guess....they still have welcome to 'some chineese company name' posters stuck behind every seat....of course the buses were ordered from China.