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Press Releases

30 Oct 2018

Launching 9th Public Transport Day coinciding with its 13th anniversary


(Al Tayer: We endeavour to make public transport the ideal choice of Dubai residents)


Public Transport Day logo

On November 1, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) celebrates the 9th edition of the Public Transport Day initiative. The event, which coincides with the 13th anniversary of RTA, aims to support Dubai’s efforts to improve the environment and achieve sustainable development. The Public Transport Day is also meant to encourage residents to use public transit means through familiarising them with the benefits of these means. It also offers a platform for promoting RTA’s modern public transport means such as the metro, tram, buses and marine transit means as well as the integration of multi-modal transit means.

 
“RTA is making renewed efforts to make public transport the ideal mobility choice of people in Dubai including citizens, residents, and visitors in the daily movement to work or leisure. The future plan is to improve the infrastructure and efficiency of public transport means and offer more smart services to the public,” said HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA.


RTA had made considerable progress in Route 2020 Project involving the extension of the Dubai Metro Red Line to the site of Expo.  Construction works in all metro viaducts are scheduled for completion in the second half of November. The first of the new Dubai Metro trains is expected to arrive in Dubai in the same month. The trial run of trains will start in Feb 2020,” said Al Tayer.

 
“RTA is planning to widen the bus network to cover 20 new areas and improve the current services across the city based on critical demographic changes by 2020. The number of air-conditioned bus stops will increase from 623 to 787 in 2020, and the number of buses will rise from 1507 to 1917 by 2020.

  RTA will also revamp the marine transit modes, which saw considerable growth following the opening of the Dubai Water Canal linking the Business Bay Canal with the Arabian Gulf.


“The public transport network has become the backbone of people mobility in Dubai. The number of public transport riders has soared from 163m riders in 2006 to 551m riders in 2017. From January to the end of September this year, the public transport network has attracted 410m riders. The Dubai Metro Red and Green lines have served about 1.2 billion riders from the launch of the service in September 2009 to the end of August last. Accordingly, the share of public transport in peoples mobility has grown steadily from 6% in 2006 to as much as 17% in 2017, and the RTA is seeking to push it to 30% by 2030,” added Al Tayer.


It is noteworthy that the 9th Public Transport Day will witness an array of events highlighted by a human series comprising the largest number of different nationalities in an attempt to register a Guinness World Record. Participants will have the chance to walk away with valuable gifts and rewards. 

 

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