Abstract
Qatar has made substantial investments to improve existing public transport system by implementing a state of the art Metro Network connecting the capital city of Doha with its suburban areas. The country’s visionary leadership and policy planners had realized that one of the key factors in the public acceptance and success will be the “first and last mile connectivity” – connecting people from their homes to metro station and from the station to their ultimate destination and started implementing various strategies to address the connectivity gap. The filling up of this gap is a major challenge in a city like Doha where public transport share is miniscule and higher dependency on private vehicles. First and last mile refers to a suite of modes/facilities including non-motorized (walking, biking etc.) and motorized modes (cars, taxis, feeder buses etc.) that facilitate easy, safe, and efficient access to a high-capacity system. In other words the First and Last Mile connectivity expand the reach of transit and maximize multi-modal benefits and efficiencies thereby inducing modal shift towards public transport. This paper specifically discusses the planning methodology, design philosophy, implementation and operational challenges of the feeder bus network (branded as metrolink) that has revolutionized travel behavior/patterns and proved quiet popular amongst the metro riders within a short span of operation. The metrolink feeder service contributed immensely in extending the metro passenger catchment beyond walking distance of 400m. It is expected that around 40-50% of the metro ridership will access the metro using the metrolink service. The paper focuses mainly on planning and development of route network for each metro station, specification for feeder bus vehicle, specification for feeder bus stop, fleet requirement and procurement strategies, operating model, service standards and key performance indicators and challenges ad lessons learnt This paper also recommends the means and forward looking strategies of improving/optimizing the current metrolink network with focus of reducing operating cost and emissions whilst maintaining the level of service offered to the passengers.
