Dubai: Public transport means in Dubai served nearly 278 million riders in the first half of this year, up by two million compared to the same period last year, an official said on Saturday.
Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said commuters who took RTA’s public transport such as Dubai Metro, tram, buses and marine transit means (abra, ferry, water taxi, water bus) as well as taxis (Dubai Taxi and franchise companies) totalled 277.91 million from January to June this year.
The figure shows a steady growth compared with the ridership reported during the same period last year of 275.242 million riders.
This means an average of 1.535 million commuters take public transport in Dubai daily.
Dubai Metro remains to take the top spot of all public transport means, accounting for 37.17 per cent of ridership. As many as 103.292 million riders took the Red and Green Lines of Dubai Metro during the same period.
Taxis came a close second with 31.61 per cent, followed by public buses at 27.48 per cent. Marine transport came third, having ferried more than seven million passengers, while the Dubai Tram came fourth with more than three million passengers.
Of the two metro lines, the Red Line transported 66.862 million passengers, nearly double the number of riders of the Green Line at 36.43 million.
The metro interchange station of BurJuman received the largest number of riders — 6.369 million riders, while the Union metro station received 5.488 million riders.
The JLT station jumped to the second spot, serving 5.524 million riders, ranking ahead of Al Rigga station with 4.921 million riders. The Burj Khalifa-Dubai Mall station received 3.934 million riders.
On the Green Line, Al Fahidi station topped the list by serving 4.079 million riders, followed by the Baniyas station with 3.302 million riders, and the Stadium station with 2.896 million riders.
Sustainable growth
Al Tayer was delighted with the healthy growth of public transit means of the RTA, which are shaping into the backbone and the first choice for commuter’s mobility in Dubai.
“The diverse and extensive projects undertaken by RTA have contributed to the growth [in numbers] of public transport riders. The share of public transit means (metro, tram, buses, marine modes) in people’s mobility has leapfrogged from 6 per cent in 2006 to 16.4 per cent in 2017. When adding taxis, the rate will jump to 25.8 per cent. The plan is to sustain the growth of public transport ridership of the said four modes to 20 per cent by 2020 and 30 per cent by 2030,” Al Tayer said.
