Dubai: Ridership on Dubai’s public transport buses increased by 4.6 per cent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed on Wednesday.
RTA’s Public Transport Agency revealed that public buses carried 70,732,502 riders, compared with 66,703,583 riders during the same period in 2015.
Bassel Sa’ad Ebrahim, director of Buses, RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said: “The increase of public bus users in Dubai is indicative of the growing culture of using public transport among various community segments.”
He attributed the trend to RTA’s efforts in operating an efficient service integrated with other mass transit modes such as the metro, tram, and marine transit modes.
He said that the public transport network is well supported by world-class facilities such as the metro and tram, marine transit facilities, air-conditioned bus shelters as well as 100 smart air-conditioned bus stops offering a variety of smart services to the public.
RTA is aspiring to raise the share of public transport means in people’s mobility to 30 per cent by 2030.
The share of public transport has soared from 6 per cent in 2006 to 15 per cent in 2015, and the rate is expected to reach 16 per cent by the end of this year.
RTA operates a fleet of 1,541 buses of various types, including 347 articulated buses, 170 double-deck buses and 24 intercity buses.
RTA celebrated the seventh anniversary of Dubai Metro on Friday, which has served more than 830 million riders since its start on September 9, 2009, up to the end of August.
The metro is continuing to rise in popularity, with a ridership of 49.9 million in the first quarter of this year, up from 44.3 million during the same period last year.
