Complaints about traffic in the Kingdom are constant. Solutions are sporadic. As far as road users and citizens can tell, there is no overall master plan for traffic in the Kingdom, a plan to the making of which all concerned parties contribute so that many of our age-old problems are taken care off, so that we have wider streets, more comfortable sidewalks, more parking spaces, etc.

The specific point I wish to raise here has to do with a traffic dimension that could ease much of the problem.

For quite a long time, we have been talking about train transportation. Little, if anything, has been done to date.

I am sure the experts and those directly concerned have their own reasons for not having secured train transportation in the Kingdom until now. The obstacles, I am sure, could be logistical, financial, etc.

What we know, however, is that most large cities in the world (the developed world, specifically) have either an excellent tram, subway or train transportation system, or a good combination of two or three.

In the Kingdom, we need the three together. But if we start with one, this would be fine.

Our public transportation system - buses, big and mini, service cars and taxis - is OK. But no more than that. It renders very important services, but it is old and old-fashioned.

It is my conviction that no city or country can hope to enter modernity without an efficient transportation system. It is also my conviction that no system of transportation in large cities can be efficient without making use of trams, subway, and trains.

Over the past decades, my family and I lived for two months in each of the following cities: Munich, Seoul, Tokyo and Lund.

The whole time we would move around in trams, trains or subways.

Not once did we need to rent a car or take a taxi. A tram, a train or a subway takes you wherever you need to go. And it is both comfortable and pleasurable.

In Jordan we may not have the resources - human and material - that the Germans, the Japanese, the Koreans or the Swedes have. And we may not be able to implement a great railways system overnight.

But we have to start, and very soon. Such a project should be given priority.