Dubai: Commuters are increasingly opting to use public transport with accumulated ridership surpassing 260 million during the first half of the year— more than 130 times Dubai’s current population.
Dubai’s public transport ridership increased by 97 million (37 per cent) from January to June this year at 262.56 million from just 165.52 million from the first half of last year, according to statistics released by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Saturday.
The ridership in the first half of the year is only about 40 per cent short of last year’s total ridership of 440.667 million.
Every day from January to June, some 1.45 million commuters used the Dubai Metro, public buses, marine transit modes and taxis. Last year, daily ridership was pegged at 1.3 million.
Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA revealed that the Dubai Metro remained as the most popular mode of transport for commuters. It transported 81.40 million riders for the first six months of the year, averaging 452,000 riders daily. The ridership is up by 14 million from the 67.10 million ridership recorded during the same period last year.
The increased connectivity in public transport is one of the reasons for the increase in ridership. This year in March, for example, RTA opened two new stations in busy areas — Al Jaddaf and Creek stations.
RTA also operated the Metro and buses for longer hours during public holidays in order to give users ease of transport. On January 1 alone, 1.6 million people hopped on the Dubai Metro and buses to avoid traffic jams in welcoming the New Year.
Al Tayer said he is optimistic that more people will choose to use public transport once the Dubai Tram is operational by November.
“This sustained growth has been made thanks to a superb and integrated mass transit means network... The last quarter of this year will witness the launch of the Dubai Tram, a further addition to public transit means poised to serve a large segment of residents in an area characterised by high population density and a hub for visitors heading to it throughout the year,” Al Tayer said.
This year, the Red Line clocked almost double the passengers on the Green Line with 51.79 million and 29.60 million passengers, respectively. The Red Line’s ridership increased by eight million while the Green Line saw six million more commuters than the previous year.
Deira City Centre remained the busiest station with 3.65 million riders. The Burj Khalifa station followed close behind with 3.44 million riders. Union and Al Riqqa stations also had between 3.2 and 3.4 million riders each.
As for the Green Line, Al Fahidi, Baniyas and Al Ghubaiba stations accounted for the majority of riders where Al Fahidi station was used by about 4 million riders, followed by Baniyas station, which was used by 3.78 million riders and Al Ghubaiba station, which served 2.81 million riders.
Around 67.59 million riders used public buses compared with 56.25 million riders from January to June last year. Other commuters — about 7.1 million — used marine transit means such as abras, water bus, water taxi, and Ferry Dubai.
Al Tayer said the annual growth in the number of public transport users shows RTA’s strategic direction in curbing the use of private vehicles and broadening the use of mass transit modes. RTA hopes that as much as 30 per cent of residents will prefer to use public transport by 2030.
Only 6 per cent of Dubai’s commuters used public transport in 2006, but this grew to 13 per cent in 2013. It is expected to hit 14 per cent by the end of this year.
