Al Tayer honours some Dubai Metro commuters for using mass transit modes

H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), yesterday honoured some of Dubai Metro users, in an initiative that aims to encourage the use of mass transit modes. Flanked by the CEO of Rail Agency Adnan Al Hamadi, and the Director of Marketing & Corporate Communication Peyman Younes Parham, Al Tayer honoured a randomly selected sample of Dubai Metro passengers at Noor Islamic Bank Station through, and offered them Nol Cards with a 500 dirham e-purse.

“This initiative reflects RTA attention to increase public transport ridership in keeping with RTA Strategic Plan of providing integrated mass transit modes; which is aligned with Dubai Strategic Plan (Infrastructure Sector) that envisages the provision of integrated road & transport systems to ensure smooth traffic flow and top-class safety standards for the system users. RTA is working tirelessly to upgrade mass transit modes to make them the favourite means of travel in the emirate; namely the Dubai Metro, public buses, marine transport modes (abras, water bus, and water taxi) and taxicabs. The ultimate strategic objective of the RTA is to minimize the use of private vehicles on the roads and increase the share of mass transit systems from 9.7 per cent in 2009 to 34 per cent in 2020,” added Al Tayer.

“The initiative also aims at showcasing the role of Dubai Emirate in supporting the initiatives that contribute to improving the environment and sustained development, and promote the advanced mass transit system in the emirate; which currently includes Dubai Metro, buses, water bus, abra, water taxi, taxicabs, and soon the tram and the Ferry.
“Dubai currently boasts integrated mass transit systems and we are working on enhancing the integration of all public transport modes to deliver best-in-class services to the community. In 2009 RTA public transport modes lifted more than 288.777 million passengers, with daily ridership in excess of 850,000 persons, and this number is likely to grow with the opening of the remaining station on the Red Line. Dubai Metro is expected to lift about 35 million passengers in 2010, and the number of metro users is expected to pick up sharply with the operation of the Green Line in August 2011.
“Since its inauguration on 09.09.09, the number of Metro users jumped from about 40,000 passengers per day to more than 120,000 passengers per day for the time being, and so far the Dubai Metro has lifted more than 19 million persons.

“Dubai Taxicabs currently make about 192,000 journeys per day, lifting in the process about 385,000 passengers. The total number of journeys made by Dubai Taxis in 2009 topped 70 million journeys in which about 140,45 million passengers were lifted. The number of public bus users in 2009 approached 120 million passengers with a daily ridership of about 325,000 passengers. Meanwhile there are about 17 million commuters who used marine transit modes that cover abras and the water bus. Abras currently lift about 50,000 passengers per day, and the water bus has a daily ridership of about 1500 passengers.