By Staff www.gulftoday.ae
DUBAI: The number of commuters who used public transport means on the New Year’s Eve has clocked 1.45 million persons, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed.
The Dubai Metro accounted for the lion’s share with Metro ridership touching new heights with 587,542 passengers — a record ridership since the launch of the Metro operation in 2009.
Burj Khalifa Dubai Mall station, Business Bay station and Financial Centre station accounted for the highest number of commuters, as these stations combined served 506,813 passengers.
The number of public bus riders reached 322,066 passengers and about 40,000 passengers used the marine transit modes.
The RTA team responsible for managing traffic movement and handling operational plans during official and annual events had worked out a comprehensive traffic plan to streamline the movement of vehicles and public transit means on New Year’s Eve, an event that witnesses huge traffic movement, particularly in the vicinity of Burj Khalifa.
The plan was implemented in co-operation with the General HQ of Dubai Police and Emaar Company.
The plan catered to the integration of various transit modes and the traffic systems in order to streamline the movement of people from and to Burj Khalifa area. The Metro working hours were extended to ensure 24-hour operation up to the dawn of Tuesday, besides reducing the headway of the Metro service during peak times.
The plan also attended to upgrading the calibre of service offered at Burj Khalifa station. This was achieved by separating public entry and exit points, improving the station’s operational efficiency, streamlining boarding of passengers in order to ease the public movement at the station at the time.
It also ensured the deployment of buses to shuttle passengers from and to the designated parking lots and operating Metro feeder service. More info
