Over 296 million use public transport in Dubai in the first half of the year

A total of 296.22 million people used public transport in Dubai in the first half of this year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has revealed.

That figure indicates an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to 277.91 million users during the same period last year.

The average daily ridership of mass transit means during the first six months of this year amounted to 1.618 million riders.

Dubai Metro accounted for the highest number of users (34 per cent), followed by taxis (30 per cent) and public buses (27 per cent).

The metro had 101.68 million users in H1 (including 66.14 million in the red line and 35.54 million in the green line).

The two interchange stations of the metro – Burjuman and Union – saw the highest traffic, at 6.348 million and 5.359 million respectively.

On the red line, Al Rigga station saw the most users followed by Dubai Multi Commodities Centre station, Burj Khalifa-Dubai Mall station and Mall of the Emirates station.

On the green line, Al Fahidi station topped the list followed by Baniyas station and Stadium station.

Other modes

During the first half of 2019, taxis registered 87.813 million users, 79.268 million used public buses, 17.74 million used shared transport (e-hail and smart car rentals), 7.2 million used marine transport (abra, ferry, water bus, water taxi) and 3.169 million used the Dubai Tram.

The RTA also confirmed that March was the busiest month during the first half of the year registering about 53.198 million users, while January was the second busiest month recording 51.668 million users. The monthly average number of users during the remaining four months ranged between 50 to 45 million riders.

“RTA’s integrated public transport network has become the backbone of people movement,” said Mattar Al Tayer, RTA director-general and chairman.

“It has coasted an evolution in public culture towards the use of mass transport. People started to grasp the benefits of using public transport such as the peace of mind, physical relief, higher safety and lower expenses on cars. The figures achieved confirm this concept as the ratio of trips using public and shared transport has almost tripled from 6 per cent in 2006 to 17.5 per cent in 2018 with a compound annual growth of about 9.3 per cent per annum.”

The RTA is working on widening the reach of public transport network, developing first and last-mile solutions, providing pedestrian and cyclists facilities, and using technology to optimise the efficiency of public transport systems.

“It has also introduced policies to limit people’s semi-total reliance on private vehicles by offering other transit means (public and shared transport), especially in a city like Dubai where vehicle ownership rate exceeds one vehicle per two persons,” said Al Tayer.