A legislation is in the offing to stop about 3,000 old coasters, euphemistically called “bald buses” plying on streets in several cities including Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam. An official at the Ministry of Interior hoped the new stipulations would end the monopoly of these old buses. Major General Fahd Bin Saud Al-Bashir, Director General of Traffic Administration said SAPTCO was given the concession to operate within cities but the company's management stopped the service in 1979 claiming that it was not cost effective. Engineer Faisal Al-Zain, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Transportation for Land Transport, described the coaster service as uncivilized as they usually concentrate on slum areas and more often than not violate traffic rules. He stressed that transportation law does not allow licenses to individuals to operate passenger buses. General Al-Bashir said the Ministry of Transport has chalked out strategy for the development of transportation in general pointing that the strategy includes action against “bald buses.” He said the plan would definitely curtail the indiscipline on the roads. The “bald buses” are in service for decades. They were plying even before the quantum development witnessed by the Kingdom in all walks. This explains why these buses are engraved on people's memory. All the attempts made by the Ministry of Transportation and Traffic Administration to take them out of the streets of the Kingdom's main towns have proved futile. The bus opeartors have been resisting for years all the astronomical figure compensations offered to them to give up. __
