Transportation management terminates contract with maadi bus suppliers

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2013

BY SALMA EL SAEED

AUC Transportation Management has terminated their contract with Nile Gate, former Maadi route bus providers, after an investigation they conducted to ensure the quality of bus vendors.

“Towards the final period of Nile Gate’s services, we found a lack of commitment to the number of buses that should have been provided and the timings agreed upon,” said Mamdouh Gaber, AUC Transportation Manager.

Gaber added that another contributing factor to the termination of the contract was that there were many incidents of buses breaking down, some of which were reported by students.

They have signed a temporary contract with Escapade, another bus vendor, for the remainder of the Fall 2013 semester.

“The Nile Gate buses broke down a couple of times, the back of the bus would sometimes heat up, and the seats were also broken at times,” said Nazly Abaza, a Multimedia Journalism senior who takes the R1 bus to and from AUC.

Noha Kandil, a business senior who takes the Maadi busses too, also reported the bus breaking down on at least two occasions.

“The bus broke down while we were on the way from Maadi to AUC and we ended up taking cabs; but, we were reimbursed for the cab fare,” said Kandil.

Amina Amer, an Architectural Engineering junior who takes the Maadi bus to and from university, said that she also experienced the bus breaking down once.

However, Amer said that another bus arrived immediately and took the passengers to the university.

According to Gaber, the Transportation Management conducts regular investigations as a means of quality control for the buses. From these investigations, the management found that the Nile Gate bus vendor consistently breached the terms of its contract with AUC.

Since the start of Escapade’s contract, Gaber said that the number of complaints has decreased significantly. He explained that members of the community have been giving positive feedback regarding the new vendor, as opposed to the complaints that were prevalent during Nile Gate’s time of service.

Gaber said that the transportation management faces a wide range of issues and hurdles, including the changing curfew hours.

When the curfew hours are extended, some classes are added, and the management must therefore provide more buses for the students and staff.

“We can’t cater to the needs of every single person who rides the buses,” said Gaber, adding that, “It is not possible to change something like the bus timings or drop-off points just because it’s convenient for a small group of people; this will impact others as well.”

The transportation management has recently changed the departure times of buses coming from pickup points to AUC, in response to a widespread complaint that buses were arriving late.

The management is currently also addressing the possibility of changing the Family Transport buses, which are getting old and also break down at times.