The Land Transport Regulatory Commission plans to extend public transport into underserved areas using service vehicles and minibuses carrying 14 passengers, linking villages and neighbourhoods to main routes where demand is too thin to justify medium or large buses.
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Zarqa, Mafraq and Jerash form the first phase. Field surveys are running in parallel to map areas with no service at all and those where smaller vehicles would work better than what is on the road now.
Riyad Kharabsheh, director general of the Land Transport Regulatory Commission, told Al-Ghad that the commission has issued a tender to operate 50 service vehicles across several areas of Zarqa governorate. Tenders for Jerash and Mafraq are being reissued, Kharabsheh said, with further tenders to follow as need arises.
The commission is working with administrative governors and its branch managers in the governorates to identify which areas need minibuses or service vehicles rather than larger buses, he explained.
The shift is driven by economics as much as coverage. Some operators have abandoned routes that no longer pay, Kharabsheh noted, which forces a rethink of vehicle size and operating model to reconcile what residents need with what an operator can sustain.
He pointed to Manshiyat Bani Hassan as a working example. Fifteen Coaster buses there were replaced by 22 service vehicles, and ridership rose because the smaller vehicles matched the pattern of demand.
Kharabsheh said the commission is encouraging operators to take up the approach so that suspended routes can resume with smaller vehicles. Residents and civil society organisations, including local associations, are also being encouraged to operate some routes, he added, on the basis that transport is part of the service package a community receives.
A draft document, "Principles for Serving Underserved Areas or Areas Where Service Has Been Disrupted," is being prepared and will be announced soon, according to Kharabsheh.
Former ministers weigh the operating model
Wesam Al-Tahtamouni, who served as minister of transport from September 2023 to August 2025, told Al-Ghad that minibuses in remote villages would strengthen the network and draw more people into using it, particularly where residents struggle to reach a main route or where current buses run well below capacity.
The value goes beyond local coverage, Al-Tahtamouni explained. Feeder lines connecting secondary routes to main ones are what make high-capacity systems such as Bus Rapid Transit viable, by raising the number of passengers they carry.
Urban growth and new neighbourhoods make network expansion unavoidable, she added, with vehicle size and fleet numbers set by actual demand rather than a uniform standard. Al-Tahtamouni also called for flexibility with existing operators, incentives to invest, and use of technology to pinpoint routes needing reinforcement, taking account of student and commuter travel patterns.
Lina Shbeeb, who served as minister of transport from 2013, described the concept as sound but dependent on a detailed implementation plan, with economic feasibility and operator commitment at the centre of it.
Earlier attempts ran into sustainability problems, Shbeeb noted, with some operators asking to move to busier, more profitable routes. That risk has to be designed out at the service-planning stage if coverage in the target areas is to hold.
Public transport is a vital sector, Shbeeb argued, and serving remote communities may require operating models that work even when a route's revenue falls short of its costs. She suggested government subsidies for such routes, alongside ride-sharing arrangements, as one way to keep service running where demand is low.
Smart applications could also deliver transport in some of these areas, she added, provided the supporting infrastructure and access are in place.
Whether the approach succeeds will turn on matching vehicle size and route design to real demand, and on building an operating model that lasts, through operator incentives, community involvement, or a support mechanism for low-revenue routes.
Source: Al-Ghad, reporting by Mahmoud Khader Al-Shaboul.
