Dubai: Around 28 new feeder buses have been deployed to serve the 10 new stations due to open on April 30 and May 15, Gulf News has learnt.
"We have already deployed 28 new feeder buses to serve commuters in communities around the new stations," said Mohammad Al Hashim, Director of Public Transport at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
He said that feeder buses are part of the RTA's integrated public transport system to provide a complete journey solution to commuters.
He said the number of Metro users are increasing gradually and currently at an average of 80,000 commuters are using the Metro every day. Some 13.68 million passengers have used metro since September 9 until end of March. The RTA expects to rise with the opening of the new stations and we expect to carry 35 million passengers by the end of 2010.
Commuters can check details of the new feeder buses services and the areas they serve by using the online journey planner portal Wojhati service.
"The number of users is expected to cross at least 130,000 passengers per day with the launching of the new stations, additional trains and feeder buses," said Peyman Younus Parham, Director of RTA's Marketing and Communication Department.
The seven stations which will start receiving passengers on April 30 include: Emirates, Airport Terminal 1, Al Karama, Emirates Towers, Dubai Internet City, Marina and Ibn Battuta stations.
Three stations including Al Qouz, GGICO and the World Trade Centre will be operational from May 15 while rest of the stations will be opened in coming months.
Parham said that the huge investments pumped by the Government of Dubai to uplift the infrastructure of transportation sector has paid dividends and proved effective. "The increase in the number of mass transit mode users reflects improvement in the culture of using public transport by all segments of the community and the drive was particularly helped by the metro service."
The RTA revealed that public transport means including the Metro, public buses, water transport and taxis have lifted more than 288.777 million passengers in 2009 and the daily ridership of mass transit modes topped 842,000 passengers.
