Reforming Lebanon and Beirut's transport network

[Mar1K]

I dont know if this is the right place to post this article but its definitely interesting!!!

al-akhbar

الساديّة في أوضح صورها (1)

محمد زبيب
صبيحة أمس، قرّر مسؤول ما، أن يختبر قدرته على ممارسة أقصى أشكال السادية، فأوعز بإقفال الطريق من بيت الكتائب في الصيفي باتجاه برج الغزال ـــــ جسر فؤاد شهاب، في ذروة ازدحام حركة السير على مدخل بيروت الشمالي، فعلقت مئات السيارات في هذا الفخ المنصوب عن سابق تصوّر وتصميم، وامتدت طابوراً متراصّاً من جسر الدورة الجديد حتى فندق الهوليداي إن الشهيد... فإذا بالمسافة التي يحتاج السائق لقطعها إلى أقل من 5 دقائق في الأيام العادية، استطالت لتستغرق أكثر من 45 دقيقة.
طبعاً، في بلاد العالم هناك كلفة كبيرة تترتّب على ذلك، لكن لا أحد في لبنان يريد احتسابها. ليس هناك من يشعر بأنه مضطر لإجراء مثل هذا الحساب، فالناس اعتادوا الخنوع، بل باتوا يجدون متعة فيه... والمعادلة التي ارتضاها الجميع قضت بتحوّل اللبنانيين إلى مازوشيين، ما دام خياراً أسهل من ممانعة رغبات الساديين... هكذا، صار الاستثناء قاعدة ثابتة مقبولة، وصارت الحالة المرضية طبيعية جداً وأكثر، صارت شرطاً للبقاء!
تنقطع الكهرباء، فتدور المولّدات، تُقنّن المياه فتنشط قاطرات الصهاريج، تزدحم الطرقات فيتلهى السائقون بمحادثات مكلفة جداً على هواتفهم الخلوية... وهكذا دواليك. إنه فنّ ليس بوسع كل البشر التمتع به. الأمر يحتاج إلى موهبة مصقولة على مدى عقود وعقود من الزمن.
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لقد أُقفل الطريق المذكور في هذا الوقت بذريعة تنفيذ بعض أشغال الصيانة عليه، كان يمكن أن يتم الأمر ليلاً أو فجراً أو في يوم عطلة، لو لم تكن فيه رغبة ساديّة. على أي حال، لم يكن في موقع الأشغال أي أشغال، ما عدا بعض الآليات المتوقّفة، وعاملاً وحيداً ظاهراً يتولى الإشراف على قطع الطريق ومنع السيارات من المرور، ولافتة تقول: «انتبه أشغال... نأسف لإزعاجكم».
لا شك في أن المسؤول الساديّ كان يقف على شرفة شقته في الوسط، أو جواره، يطلّ من طابقه العالي على عالم سفلي أسهم بخلقه، يراقب بشغف وتلذّذ وانتشاء فرائسه المطيعة التي تعبر من تحته من دون أي تعبير عن غضب أو احتجاج أو شكوى... شقّة الوسط تفصيل مهم في هذا المشهد الصباحي. إنها التعبير عن الساديّة الكاملة المعلنة، فالسرقات والرشى والعمولات والإتاوات والخوّات والاحتكارات والمضاربات والمصادرات والمخالفات... كلها تصنع الثروة، لكنها لا توصل إلى النشوة. ما يوصل إليها هو الإقامة على حقوق الآخرين وعذاباتهم وأحلامهم المسلوبة.

[Shah Massoud]

Interesting article DODZI......

It is very intersting to solve the public transport issues in lebanon....but here are some suggestions and comments:

1- Metro is out of question of course because of the cost and also because digging anywhere in lebanon you would find ruins and the dilema would come for stopping the rail or changing the routes....

2-Bus routes inside beirut would not work due to the fluctuation of the traffic (sometimes u can reach hamra to achrafieh in 10 minutes and sometines it takes 1 hour ...and these can be in the same day with no particular reason)...so the buses couldn't be time scheduled and therfore would also affect the timetables of the train stations....

3- what could work is several maglev suspended rail (the rail are easy to install as they are not wide) that could connect for example 12 main areas in beirut together ....(like Hamra, Achrafieh-ABC , Mathaf, Verdun, Phoenicia ,.....)
Inside each of these 12 areas would be shuttle mini-buses (electrical why not !!) that do round trips around the area to the maglev station....the traffic time delay inside each of these zones would be then much more predictable

4- one single pass should allow people to take the shuttle to the maglev station , use the maglev, take the shuttle from the destination maglev station to the particular street...

of course all the maglev lines would connect together in the Dora main train station and a similar one on the other side of beirut near the airport where huge parking places should also be there for people wanting to leave their cars there and taking the public transport....

[roch10452]

we can start all those project once we get a government running
who are we kidding

let at least fix the road and run some buses around lebanon
clean and well scheduled lines
maybe build a railway from the south to the north, that will help a lot

we can try to convince lebanese to buy smaller cars instead of 4X4
coz last time i was in my tiny peugeot in lebanon, i was once stuck between 8 4X4 on the highway... i didnt see that in the usa, it happened to me twice in lebanon

[shreek]

Originally Posted by dodzi

When I come to Lebanon, I usually take the bus from Achrafieh to Dora then to Kaslik...

The buses are usually almost full. If the bus isn't full, then the driver gets on the side and waits until the bus is full enough to be able to pay for the ride. That's because all buses are in competition with each other. A more centralized and coordinated bus system would avoid this by imposing a schedule, and having just one public bus company!

There are always people taking the bus from Beirut to Dora, to Antelias, to Kaslik, to Jounieh, to Jbeil and further to Tripoli. Trains would be great for those people!

As for tourists, just like me, take the car only because public transport sucks so much!

You're also forgetting the impact freight trains would have on our economy, in the industrial and the commercial sector!

who on Earth takes those Buses? Only Syrians and other foreign workers take them. Heeda 7emel kees basal, heeda 7emel djeje.
Can't you afford Service or your own car?

[elias-aj]

Originally Posted by roch10452

let at least fix the road and run some buses around lebanon
clean and well scheduled lines
maybe build a railway from the south to the north, that will help a lot

we can try to convince lebanese to buy smaller cars instead of 4X4
coz last time i was in my tiny peugeot in lebanon, i was once stuck between 8 4X4 on the highway... i didnt see that in the usa, it happened to me twice in lebanon

Lol at the 8 4X4 ! Hope you're not claustrophobic. Indeed, last time I was in Lebanon, I wondered if there aren't more hummers in Jal el Dib than in the whole US Army !

But the roads are in such a bad shape that everybody is convinced you can't but drive 4X4... which is - truth to be said - not always false.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by shreek

who on Earth takes those Buses? Only Syrians and other foreign workers take them. Heeda 7emel kees basal, heeda 7emel djeje.
Can't you afford Service or your own car?

There are indeed many people that cannot afford "service" or their own car.

The view from your ivory tower apparently does not permit you to see fellow citizens that are using such means of transport: men, women, adults and children... I have used those buses and most of the passengers are Lebanese.

[roch10452]

Originally Posted by shreek

who on Earth takes those Buses? Only Syrians and other foreign workers take them. Heeda 7emel kees basal, heeda 7emel djeje.
Can't you afford Service or your own car?

we do,
the students
the not so rich employees

no i couldnt afford using my old car for college every day
no i couldnt afford service every day too

no plenty of lebanese used those buses
most of the users were lebanese

[dodzi]

Originally Posted by shreek

who on Earth takes those Buses? Only Syrians and other foreign workers take them. Heeda 7emel kees basal, heeda 7emel djeje.
Can't you afford Service or your own car?

I sure hope you're being sarcastic!

You might be sarcastic but many people in Lebanon think this way. However, I myself first used such buses as a teenager, as I realized that my parents wouldn't always take me to my girlfriend's house through Jal el Dib's traffic jams.

In fact, many people use the bus. I knew a guy who took the bus every day from Achrafieh to Hamra. Of course, he had to walk from Karm el Zaïtoun to Achrafieh, and from Hamra to AUB. However, I noticed how much cozier it was than having to drive through Bliss street everyday and having to find a parking spot there.

The buses are used by many people, and while foreigners travel almost exclusively by bus, the buses are almost exclusively full of Lebanese. Young, old, male, female, middle or lower classes...

Many people could benefit from a working bus system, including the young (I used to take the bus from Sodeco to Sassine before I could afford a car), the old (who sometimes can't drive anymore), the poor (who can't afford buying a car), the less poor (who don't want to fill their car with gas every day), and the cool!

Of course, most people (rich, poor, young, old, cool and uncool) use the car because the bus system is simply pathetic!

PS: I've never seen any cooking ingredients in the bus, but if there were, I'd be even more interested in taking the bus!

[Dry Ice]

The bus is a melting pot of Lebanese society.

It is one of the few places where people from different backgrounds get together. Most of the time no communication happens; but a few times, people get to strike a conversation and learn a couple of things about that passenger sitting next to them.

[Qwiw]

Pour 300 millions de dollars, une nouvelle ligne de train de près de 60 kms a été mise en place au Canada, comprenant la construction de 11 nouvelles gares.

Admettons qu'il faille réhabiliter les 100 kms de ligne déjà existante entre Beyrouth et Tripoli, on ne devrait pas dépasser les 100 millions de dollars, vu la différence de cout de main d'oeuvre et de fabrication de certains matériaux.

Cela représenterait 1/10ème des bénéfices annuels du ministère des Télécommunications.