Doha Diary: Travel comes easy at compact Qatar World Cup, but dose of patience necessary

DOHA: On a driverless train in Qatar, an animated conversation about Iranian politics breaks out.

A Team Melli fan and an England supporter are deep in discussion, before another Iranian across the aisle interjects in disagreement.

All this, as air horns from another carriage assault commuters' ears.

Welcome to the Doha metro, a public railway network which fans at the World Cup use to get from stadium to stadium.

Train seats are plush, the journey is smooth and the experience usually a pleasant one.

Unlike previous World Cup host nations such as Russia and Brazil, the size of Qatar - the smallest country to host football's biggest tournament - means that this edition is an unprecedentedly compact one.

The tournament's eight stadiums are located within a radius of about 55km from capital Doha, five of which are accessible via a walk of no more than twenty minutes from the metro.

Spanning 76km, 37 stations and three lines - red, green, and gold - the metro is also spotlessly clean, and I can attest to that having used it a fair bit during my time here in Doha.

With four games held in one day, it is also possible to visit multiple venues. However, fans are limited to two matches per day, as are the media.

"I think it's a great thing (that the World Cup is so compact)," said English fan John Holden. "We got the metro from the airport to our apartment, got the metro to the stadium, it's really good."

Public transportation - including the metro - is free for visitors throughout the duration of the tournament.

Apart from the railway network, which was launched in 2019, there's always Uber. 

And unlike in other countries where there's usually a wait associated with bookings, there seems to be no shortage of drivers here in Qatar.

Rides are