Wednesday, Jun 28, 2017

Dubai: Public transport commuters faced delays during morning rush hours due to glitches in Dubai Metro operations.

An official from RTA told Gulf News that a few metro stations on the Red Line, in the direction towards the Etisalat Metro Station in Al Qusais, experienced a technical glitch.

However, the incident was resolved after one hour by 9.30am, and operations resumed back to normal.

Residents took to social media to vent their complaints, as the metro-feeder buses were reportedly overfilled with passengers.

Passengers at the Union Square Metro Station also reportedly faced heavy delays on their morning journey, as well as on the Red Line towards the UAE Exchange route.

Twitter user @HeartyAli0920 said that she was stuck outside Union Square station, “with a sea of people,” while @VelvetRhyme said that she had been waiting for the metro and taxi for one hour.

While the RTA did not post the reason behind the delay on its social networking sites, the authority’s customer service department confirmed that there was a technical glitch on the Red Line after BurJuman Metro Station.

Meanwhile, more than 2.89 million people used Dubai’s public transport during the Eid Al Fitr Holiday, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed on Wednesday. The total ridership during the holiday had reached 2,891,557 riders, they said.

The Metro was the most popular form of public transport with a ridership of 1,500,899 shared between the Red Line (980,278 riders) and the Green Line (520,621 riders), said Nasir Hamad Bu Shehab, CEO of Strategy & Corporate Governance Sector at RTA.

The number of passengers that used the Dubai Tram were 55,889, while public buses riders were 1,153,555 and the number of marine transport users were 181,214, he added.

“The RTA had charted out a comprehensive plan for managing public transport movement during Eid Al-Fitr holiday; which is marked by intense traffic especially in certain hotspots like Dubai Mall-Burj Khalifa Downtown, Bu Shehab said.

“The plan was developed to ensure the integration of mass transit systems and the traffic systems to ensure a smooth mobility of people from and to those areas.”

Staff Report

Gulf News 2017. All rights reserved.