In February, Moventia launched its urban transport service in Mecca with a shuttle line between Masjid al-Haram (the Great Mosque of Mecca) and Al Haramain Station (the high-speed train station).

In April, the company faced its greatest trial by fire on this project because Ramadan fell in that month this year, a period during which a vast number of pilgrims travel to Mecca (12 million this year). For this Stage of the project (Stage 1), Moventia operated 120 buses on up to four lines carrying up to 50,000 passengers per day in recent days. The shuttle between Masjid al-Haram and Al Haramain Station (Stage 0) was joined by the corridors leaving Masjid al-Haram: the western corridor, the south-eastern corridor and the northern corridor.

Jordi Castells, Head of Operations at Moventis and Manager of Moventis for Saudi Arabia, said he was “very pleased to have been able to successfully operate this service during the month of Ramadan. This was one of the main trials by fire for us and demonstrates that we are on the right path to completing our roll-out of this operation with 400 buses. It is important to stress that Moventia is the first international operator to launch an urban transport service in Saudi Arabia”.