Dubai: Dubai Metro services on Friday will begin at 10am instead of the existing 1pm start from this week, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced yesterday.
Commuters have been demanding an early start on Fridays for long and RTA has finally obliged.
The timings for the rest of the week will remain the same, running from 5.30am to 12 midnight, while the service runs until 1am on weekends.
Announcing the change, Abdullah Yousuf Al Ali, CEO of RTA’s Rail Agency, said: “RTA is seeking to deliver best-in-class services corresponding to the needs of mass transit users. We commissioned studies about revising operational time of the Metro service on Fridays and we have found that most commuters prefer starting the service as early as 10am. The move fits well with RTA’s trend to offer services capable of bringing happiness to people.”
RTA has also made changes to the Dubai Tram services, with the suspension of loop trips of Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) and Dubai Marina, which covers four stations: JBR 1, JBR 2, Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Marina Mall.
The changes to tram services will also come into effect from Friday, October 2.
“Studies have also been conducted about the performance of the Dubai Tram with a view to sourcing the best suggestions for boosting riders’ satisfaction. Therefore, we have opted to introduce some changes to the service format to meet expectations of riders,” he added.
Al Ali said that the study revealed abolishing the loop service would bring about a lot of positives such as slashing the total transit time from 54 minutes to 45 minutes, and improving the service frequency to 8 minutes.
“The number of riders using this Semi-Circular Tram Service (Marina Loop) is 6 per cent of total riders as revealed by statistics during the period from December 2014 to May 2015. Accordingly, the Dubai Tram timetable has been revised resulting in shorter operational hours as the service will now terminate at 1am instead of 1.30am,” he said.
