Dubai extends metro, tram operating hours

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority has announced that the city’s metro and tram services will begin operating on an extended timetable from November 1.

Under the plans, Red Line services will begin at 5:00am from 5:30am previously and Green Line services will operate from 5:30am instead of 5:50am.

Dubai Tram services will begin at 6:00am instead of 6:30am.

The revised schedule coincides with Public Transport Day 2017 and is designed to help passengers reach their destinations faster and encourage more people to use public transport.

Mohammed Yousef Al Mudharreb, director of rail operations at the RTA’s Rail Agency, said express metro services had also been improved with the deployment of trains for the start of operations each morning at six stations: Rashidiya, Rigga, Emirates Towers, First Gulf Bank, Jumeirah Lakes Towers and UAE Exchange.

The new timetable will see Red Line trains operate from 5:00am to 12:00am from Saturday to Wednesday and 5:00am to 1:00am on Thursdays. Services on Fridays will start at 10:00am and end at 1:00am the next day.

For the Green Line, services will operate from 5:30am to 12:00am from Saturday to Wednesday, from 5:00am to 1:00am on Thursdays and 10:00am to 1:00am on Fridays.

Meanwhile, the tram will operate from 6:00am to 1:00am from Saturday to Thursday and 9:00am to 1:00am on Fridays.

Dubai Metro carried 100.558 million riders in the first half of this year, up from 96.486 million in H1 2016. The tram transported 3.087 million commuters, up from 2.535 million during the same period last year.

Read: Over 100 million commuters used Dubai Metro during H1 2017