Dubai: Almost one million people in Dubai used public transport daily for the first half of this year, bringing the total number of users to 165,527,687, a senior official from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said.
The biggest chunk of the commuters or 43,552,110 passengers preferred to travel via the Dubai Metro Red Line, exceeding seven million riders per month, according to the RTA Statistics Section. The Green Line received four million passengers per month or 23,549,206 from January to June.
Deira City Centre, Burj Khalifa, and Mall of the Emirates stations have consistently remained popular with commuters, each station serving more than three million regular customers.
The Union, BurJuman, Mall of the Emirates, Al Rigga and Al Karama stations served close to 2.7 million users per station.
The Al Fuhaidi, Bani Yas and Al Ghubaiba stations saw the largest number of commuters on Dubai Metro’s Green Line. Each station clocked up more than two million passengers.
“In keeping with the RTA Strategic Plan focused on integrating public transit means, which is aligned with the Dubai Strategic Plan for the infrastructure sector aimed at providing an integrated roads and transport system in order to ensure a smooth traffic flow and the highest safety levels for system users, the RTA has made every effort to revamp the public transport means to make them the ideal mobility choice of people in the emirate,” Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, said.
The use of other public transport means such as public buses has seen an increase from just 53,512,000 passengers in January to June 2012 to 56,256,678 passengers in the same period this year.
“Marine transit modes [abras, water bus, water taxi, Dubai Ferry] served a combined 6,823,183 passengers during the first half of this year,” Al Tayer said, adding that taxicabs of the Dubai Taxi Corporation (excluding those from franchised companies) carried 35,346,510 passengers.
Al Tayer said he was delighted with the sustained and constant annual growth of public transport passengers in Dubai, stressing that changes in the culture of using public transport means are already being noted. He said the RTA aims to increase the use of public transit means to 30 per cent by 2030.
“Residents and visitors of the emirate do grasp the benefits and advantages of using public transport means including the psychological and physical relief of riders, reducing traffic accidents, cutting expenses on fuel and maintenance of private vehicles, and avoiding the hassles of finding a parking space, which is becoming a challenge facing most advanced cities worldwide, let alone that using public transport means effectively contributing to reducing pollution generated by the massive number of private cars, which also triggers illnesses such as those related to the respiratory system,” said Al Tayer.
