Dubai Metro, currently subsidised
by the government, is forecast to break even by 2017, the head of the Road and
Transport Authority said in a speech this week in London.
The US$4.2bn light rail system,
launched in September 2009, will reach profitability within five years as a
result of increased usage, additional revenues generated from station naming
rights, rental of retail outlets and advertising, said Mattar Al Tayer,
Chairman and Director of the Road and Transport Authority (RTA).
In a speech at the MetroRail 2012
Conference in London, Al Tayer also stated the RTA’s bus network was likely to
reach profitability by 2016.
The RTA said in January the Dubai
Metro had lifted more than 69m passengers in 2011.
Figures showed a total of 346.5m passengers used public transport in Dubai last year, a rise of 4.3
percent rise compared to 2010.
A total of 107.4m people
used public buses last year, an average of about 298,000 passengers per day,
while more than 14m passengers used marine transit modes, which include
abras, water bus and water taxis.
Taxis made 62.36m trips lifting
about 155.9m passengers in 2011, the RTA added.
“The huge investments
injected by the Dubai Government for the development of the infrastructure of
transport sector have proved both successful and effective,” Al Tayer said
in January.
The average number of daily
riders on Dubai’s public transport system reached 963,000 compared to 922,000
in 2010, the RTA said.
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