Dubai clocks 702 million public transport riders in 2023

Around 702 million riders used public transport in Dubai in 2023, marking a 13 per cent increase year-on-year.

That includes Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, public buses, marine transport means (abras, ferry, water taxi, water bus), e-hail rides, smart car rental, Bus-On-Demand, and taxis (Dubai Taxi and franchise company taxis).

Revealing the stats, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said the average daily ridership of public transport, shared mobility and taxis clocked 1.92 million riders in 2023 compared to 1.7 million riders in 2022.

Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, expressed his delight over the consistent annual increase in public transport usage, as well as the 34 per cent rise in shared mobility ridership compared to 2022.

He noted that extension of the Dubai Metro line and bus routes, and deployment of modern fleet of public buses has contributed to the increase in rider numbers.

“Dubai Metro attracted the largest proportion of the public transport, shared mobility and taxi ridership in 2023, amounting to 37 per cent, compared to 36 per cent in 2022, whereas, taxis acquired 28 per cent compared to 29.5 per cent in 2022," revealed Al Tayer.

"The share of public bus riders hit 25 per cent, and shared mobility riders grew from 5 per cent in 2022 to 6 per cent in 2023. Meanwhile, marine transport and Dubai Tram maintained their ridership levels, which amounted to 3 per cent for marine transport, and 1 per cent for Dubai Tram."

He noted that December recorded an all-time high monthly ridership touching 64.9 million coinciding with the UAE's hosting of COP 28, followed by October which saw 64.2 million riders, and November which recorded 64 million riders.

Public transport and shared mobility means as well as taxis made 144 million trips, with over 114 million for taxis, and 25 million for shared mobility.

"October was the busiest month in terms of the number of trips recording 13.3 million trips, followed by November and December with 13 million trips each," he added.

Dubai's #RTA announced that in 2023, the combined ridership of public transport and shared mobility, including Dubai Metro, Tram, buses, marine transport, shared mobility services, and taxis, reached around 702 million, up 13% from 2022's 621.4 million. The average daily… pic.twitter.com/VDDay5H3wn

— RTA (@rta_dubai) February 18, 2024