Dubai’s RTA has reported total public transport passenger numbers of more than 621m riders last year.
The RTA said journeys included Metro, Tram, public buses, marine transport (abra, ferry, water taxi, water bus), shared mobility (e-hail, smart car rentals, bus-on-demand) and taxis (Dubai Taxi and franchise companies’ taxis).
The figure reflects an increase of 35% when compared to the ridership numbers in 2021, which was 461 million riders.
Dubai public transport
The average daily ridership of public transport, shared mobility and taxis clocked 1.7m riders in 2022, compared to 1.3 million riders in 2021.
Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, expressed his delight in the steady growth in the number of public transport riders in 2022.
He also highlighted the share of the Metro in Dubai’s public transport ridership had increased by 3%, while marine transport riders showed a 1% rise when compared to 2021 levels.
“Dubai Metro acquired the largest percentage of the public transport, shared transport and taxis ridership in 2022, amounting to 36% up by 3% from the 2021 level of 33%.
“It is a good indicator of people shifting to public transport modes that serve a growing number of riders. The share of public buses reached 25%, and marine transport riders grew from 2% in 2021 to 3% in 2023.
“Meanwhile, shared mobility modes and Dubai Tram maintained their ridership levels, which amounted to 5% for shared transport, and 1% for Dubai Tram.
“March 2022 recorded an all-time high monthly ridership touching 62m coinciding with the end of Expo 2020, followed by December which saw 57m riders. Ridership rates in other months ranged from 46 to 56m.
“Public transport and shared mobility means as well as taxis made 129m trips (105m for taxis, 18.5m for shared mobility, 4m for buses, 936,000 for marine transport, 450,000 for Metro, and 99,000 trips for Dubai Tram).
“October was the busiest month in terms of the number of trips recording 11.9m trips, followed by March with 11.8m trips.
“The numbers of trips in other months varied from 9.7m to 11.6m trips”.
Figures released by RTA’s Data Statistics and Analysis Section at the Enterprise Command and Control Centre indicated that the number of riders using Dubai Metro’s Red and Green Lines amounted to 225.1m riders in 2022.
Burjuman and Union Stations, which are interchange stations on the Red and Green Lines, accounted for the largest share of public transport riders of Dubai Metro in 2022.
Burjuman Station served 13m riders on both the Red and Green Lines, whereas the Union Station was used by 10.8m riders.
On the Red Line, Al Rigga Station attracted the highest number of riders reaching 9.9m, followed by Mall of the Emirates Station (9.6m), Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall Station (8.8m) and the Business Bay Station (8.5m).
On the Green Line, Sharaf DG ranked first in terms of riders recording 7.7m ahead of Baniyas Station (7.3m) followed by the Stadium Station (5.6m), Salah Al Din Station (5.3m), and Al Ghubaiba Station (4.9m).
The breakdown of other means of public transport commuters in Dubai last year was as follows: Tram (7.5m), public buses (157.3m), marine transport encompassing abras, water bus, water taxi, and Ferry (16m), shared mobility comprising e-hail, smart car rental, and Bus-On-Demand (32.5m), and taxis including Dubai Taxi and Franchise companies served 183m passengers.
The numbers demonstrate the integrated public transport network, which has become the backbone of residents and visitors’ movement around the city.
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