Taxi situation at RT

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Yes the taxi situation is dire - seemingly a while back there was also Majestic taxis here on the compound in RT but now only Samara and not enough taxis for the RT compound as it is full and seemingly another 100 houses being renovated right now in RT for more incoming new hires.

Here is an example:

My husband will come home and get a call that he must go offshore early the next morning - so he calls Samara taxis and they tell him either they are fully booked and can't help or that he must call two hours before he needs the taxi - ridiculous.

Another example:

I sometimes need to go to Rahima during the day - so I try and get a taxi - normally told fully booked so I say to them what about tomorrow again told fully booked so they advise me to call Abaiq! so I call them and they send a taxi for me all the way from Abaiq to take me to Rahima then when I get to Rahima they won't wait and then I am stranded often having to wait hours or phone a kindly neighbour to ask her husband to collect me if my husband is offshore etc.

The Samara taxis here on RT are giving a shoddy service and they do not seem to care even at one point one of my cats became seriously ill I called Samara taxis in desperation to take me to Dhahran vet and they said no can do so again in desperation a good neighbour took me there.

So there is no service for business people here and no service for us women either.

I had to book a taxi 3 weeks well in advance for a trip to Bahrain and even then the taxi came from Abaiq - so this is also causing really big problems with new hires that need to get their paperwork done - hence we have loaned them our car - or bicycle etc - of course when the hot weather arrives then often people here will be stranded on RT not being able to get a taxi -I am unsure if Aramco are aware of this dire situation???

I take the point to get to Dhahran for us women we can of course take the buses but sometimes that does not work out for whatever reason and we need to get a taxi - anybody else on RT with the same problem?

Caroline

seemingly having taken a call to my husband this morning on the subject they actually raised it at a meeting within Aramco yesterday as it is a serious problem when personnel cannot get offshore if they can't get a taxi?

Carolina

While Im not sure Id call the taxi situation dire, I would say it is pretty bad. Most stores in Saudi (off camp) are open from 9am to 11am, close till 4pm and then reopen until late. You can preschedule taxis to go out of town (Dhahran, Khobar, etc) but not within camp or to Rahima.

While we have had very few issues prescheduling taxis, we have had several issues trying to take taxis into Rahima. A some points we have gone days without luck. A few weeks ago we tried for 4 days in a row, each night calling when I got home from work. We finally got a taxi on the 4th night at 10pm.

During the day, when the shops are closed, you can usually get a taxi. During the mornings when people are going to work and the shops are open it can be near impossible. The evenings are hit or miss, but again its very tough when people are commuting to/from work and stores are open.

As to problems with the taxi drivers, we have only had troubles with 1 Aramco driver. The others have been polite, though some had trouble with english. We normally use Samara instead as we've found most speak english better.

We ended up buying a golf cart for in camp travel, which we really enjoy. For off camp though there have been days Ive simply given up and biked into town.

As with your other questions, you will find good and bad here, Ive traveled the world and yet to find Utopia. That being said, here in RT I wake up and see the beach, I work half the hours that I did back in the states, and for the first time in years I havent had to worry about finances. Its human nature to pick out the down side of things, 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease', etc. But honestly for most life is good here and sometimes its easy for us to forget just why we left home.

Good luck!

In my experience, the taxis here are not great, certainly not as reliable as they could and should be. Best thing I ever did was get a car, it makes popping in to rahima a 15min exercise instead of long saga!

Twofeets, I would look into buying a really cheap old car just for use on camp and popping into rahima. You can use the bus into Khobar etc. Onc you have built up a bit of cash buy something nicer and get rid of the old banger!

I have found that it is difficult to get taxis. Often I am told to call back ten minutes before for any taxi into Rahima the few times I have needed it and sometimes they are not available. I have tried to pre book taxis to take me to Jubail to visit friends and they either say I have to call the morning of or that none are available so I either don't go or call back everyday until there is a day that I can get one. However, I called yesterday to prebook a taxi to the airport in a couple of weeks and there was no problem. It seems like it is whether they determine it to be important enough. Thankfully we have a car and my husband is willing to drive whenever I want to go into Khobar etc but he will be working more in the coming months so we will see how the taxi situation works out. However, even with two young kids I find the shoppers bus to be sufficient when no other option is available.