Sharjah buses help move the masses

Sharjah: Well over 171,000 passengers took inter-emirate buses from Sharjah during the three-day Eid holiday period, with Dubai being the most popular destination.

"We anticipated a big rush of commuters during the three-day Eid holiday and in turn increased the number of trips per day," said Rashid Mahboub, manager of Al Jubail bus station.

Sharjah Transport recorded a total of 171,969 passengers on public buses during the Eid holidays with a total of 3,638 individual trips. A good number of people boarded buses to Dubai — a total of 74,423 passengers on 1,322 trips.

Sharjah-Abu Dhabi services accounted for 24,749 passengers and 463 trips. Those who bought tickets to Ajman numbered 19,344 with 379 bus trips.

Mahboub added that a special team had been tasked with tracking the movement of passengers during Eid Al Fitr to ensure that there was minimum disturbance in schedules.

Special services

"We also employed a number of people to help the elderly and people with special needs to board the buses, and adopted new services, such as equipping the station with water coolers and electric fans," Mahboub said.

Sharjah Transport also recorded 4,872 passengers on inter-emirate bus services to the Eastern and Central regions with 444 trips in all.

In demand

Yousuf Sulaiman Al Hammadi, Director of the Eastern and Central Office at Sharjah Transport, told Gulf News that three dedicated routes kept up services to the sector.

The routes included line 116 from Sharjah to Al Dhaid, Masafi and Fujairah, in addition to line 119 for Khor Fakkan, Kalba and Dibba Al Hosn, and line 120 which links the city of Al Dhaid with Madam.

"Line 116 made 279 trips and recorded the largest number of commuters at 2,352. The second busiest was line 119 with 1,642 passengers," Al Hammadi said, adding that line 120 was used by 698 passengers in 88 trips.