Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that its Public Transport Agency has achieved a bus operation rate as high as 89 per cent during the first half of this year, serving 66,500,269 riders during this period.
The achievement echoes RTA’s endeavours to implement its strategy of increasing public transport ridership, reducing the use of private vehicles, alleviating snarls, and enhancing safety and environmental sustainability.
“The Bus Operation Rate Index is one of the indicators of the availability of the fleet’s buses and their readiness for service during peak hours; which reflects to a great extent the effectiveness of maintenance operations conducted to buses to keep them ready for offering seamless services to clients,” said Abdullah Al Maazami, Director of Maintenance and Services, RTA Public Transport Agency.
“Studies and benchmarks of the best global practices of the industry reveal that the internationally acknowledged standard of the Bus Operation Rate is 85 per cent; which is considered by the World Bank as ideal and good under all conditions. However, this rate drops sometimes in developing countries to 75 per cent, whereas in cities like Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Montreal, Paris, Rome and Sydney (which combined operate 25,000 buses lifting about 6 billion people per annum) is 84.3 per cent. So, the rate we have achieved reflects the rise of our bus operation rates to record levels worldwide,” Al Maazami noted.
