More people are depending on public transportation to get around the city, with a growth of almost 8.5 million in the number of passengers using various modes of public transport.

The Roads and Transport Authority revealed on Saturday that more than 271 million people used mass transit means in Dubai, which include the Metro, public buses, marine transit means and taxis, during the first six months of the year.

"In the first six months of 2015, we had 271 million riders use public transportation in Dubai. This is a significant growth, especially when compared to statistics during the same period of 2014, when 262.5 million people used public transportation,” Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA, said.

"The number of Metro riders on both the Red and Green Lines over the last six months topped more than 88.2 million riders, compared with 81.4 million during the same period last year,” Al Tayer said.

"The number of public bus riders during the first half of this year amounted to more than 66.5 million riders and the Dubai Bus service accounted for the largest number of riders recording more than 44 million passengers, followed by the Metro stations' feeder service which lifted 13.4 million riders, and third came the Intercity bus service which was used by almost 6 million riders. The remaining riders were served by Bus Rental Service to public and private entities.

"The marine transit modes, comprising abras, water bus, water taxi and Dubai Ferry, have lifted during the first half of this year almost 7.5 million passengers. The number of abra riders alone clocked 7.1 million riders, whereas the water bus lifted 250,000 people, Dubai Ferry served 56,568 riders and the water taxi offered services to 14,541 people.”

Taxis operating in Dubai (Dubai Taxi and franchise taxi companies) made 53.5 million trips during the first six months of this year, lifting 107.5 million passengers. The Dubai Taxi Corporation has lifted the biggest chunk of these riders by operating about 23 million trips serving about 46 million passengers,” Al Tayer said.

Al Tayer said he was delighted with the sustained growth in the annual public transport ridership which, he says, emulates the strategic drive of the RTA aimed at reducing the use of private vehicles and augmenting the use of public transit means, rendering them the first mobility choice in the emirate of Dubai. He noted that the RTA was endeavouring to raise the share of public transport means to as much as 30 per cent by 2030, and had succeeded in raising this share from 6 per cent in 2006 to 14 per cent in 2014, and anticipated this rate would hit 15 per cent by the end of 2015.
Source: Gulf News