DUBAI — Extra taxis will be put into service to meet the increase in passenger traffic at the Dubai Metro stations, a senior Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) official said.
Abdul Aziz Malik, CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation said 300 taxis would be deployed initially.
“Drivers of about 300 taxis have so far undergone field planning to acquaint them with the Metro stations, and practical training has been arranged for 1,531 drivers, as well as theoretical training for 3,935 drivers,” Malik said.
“Metro location maps have also been distributed to the drivers well before the launch of the project.”
He also said the taxi company will link the locations of the Metro stations with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and add it to the electronic chart of the Booking and Despatch System of RTA’s Public Transport Agency, and provide an text message link with the stations.
As more people travelled into Dubai from the other emirates and countries to celebrate their Eid holidays, Dubai Metro reported its highest number of passengers per day since its launch.
On Sunday, the first day of Eid, RTA announced that 97,527 passengers used the Metro.
Aysha Al Busmait, Director of the authority’s Customer Service Centers Department said, the “Musanada (Support) Team” formed by the Department since the beginning of the current week is progressively giving a hand and supporting the public.
She said the team is available at all the Metro stations, and its members wear ‘Ask Me’ tags as identification.
One of the passengers Mohammed Abbas, 32, a construction engineer from Abu Dhabi aboard the Dubai Metro said the Metro was better than what he had expected.
“The Metro is clean, fast and comfortable – I can’t wait for the launch of the Abu Dhabi Metro in 2016,” Abbas said.
He said Dubai Metro was already taking the initiative to support passengers travelling from Abu Dhabi. Once the Abu Dhabi Metro was operating he said travel would be convenient and more profitable if both rail-systems were connected.
Another passenger Luay Abdul Razzak, 17, student from Fujairah said riding the Metro was like travelling 10 years into the future.
“This is my second time aboard the Metro in the last two days,” Razzak said.
