DUBAI 31 October 2018: On November 1, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will celebrate the 9th edition of the Public Transport Day. The event, which coincides with the 13th anniversary of RTA.
The Public Transport Day is also meant to encourage residents to use public transit.
“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 Mattar Al Tayer, RTA Director-General and Chairman.
Route 2020
RTA had made considerable progress in Route 2020 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.
Bus Network
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 163 million 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.
Guinness Attempt
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.