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06 December 2024

Business Bay bus route: Pick-up every 15 mins

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

There is good news for residents and visitors to the Business Bay community. Now, other than the Metro station located on Sheikh Zayed Road, the community will soon be served with an extended bus route.

The bus route will open on March 1, 2014.

Once in place, passengers are likely to be served on once-every-15-minutes basis.

The bus route is an extension of Route 29, which currently terminates at Dubai Mall.

Director of Planning and Business Development at the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) Issa Al Hashemi told Emirates 24|7: “Route 29, which connects Al Ghubaiba area with Down Town Burj Area, will be extended from its current end terminus located beside Dubai Mall to service the Business Bay development and terminate at Business Bay Metro Station.

Although the detailed bus route has not yet been revealed, it is bound to make its route into the area, as the current end terminus is located at the foot of the Old Town.

This, however, does not guarantee a cross-over to the other side of the Business Bay Creek, where a significant number of high-rise residential towers are located.

Business Bay is located between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road, divided by the Business Bay Creek.

Although residences on the north side of the Creek are at walkable distance from Business Bay Metro station, apartments on the south side can only be accessed from Al Khail Road or by crossing the bridge, both of which requires a car.

In June last year, Emirates 24/7 visited the area and spoke to residents on the south side.


Although apartments were available at relatively low prices, they expressed the need for better accessibility.

If not in the possession of a car, the only alternative was to book a taxi, as even taxis would not regularly swing by the area, was their conclusion.

Residents in buildings such as Mayfair Residence, Mayfair Tower, Churchill Tower and surrounding towers said they were anxiously waiting for a bus route to be launched.

Although the area is still under development, the area has clearly risen in popularity.  A major contributor is the launch of Dubai Canal project.

Al Hashemi explains: “The RTA/PTA has developed a comprehensive and integrated public transport plan to serve the various developments within the Emirate of Dubai.

“Currently, the Business Bay area is experiencing rapid growth with the development of Dubai Canal.”

Once the service is in place, it is expected to lift passengers every 15 minutes.

“The current headway of the service is 15 minutes during peak hours and a standard bus is being operated,” says Al Hashemi.

In addition, access to Al Khail Road is expected to improve, with plans for road expansion in the pipeline Although the timeframe is yet unclear, Maitha bin Adai, CEO of the Traffic and Roads Agency (TRA) told this website earlier that work on a new road would commence in 2014, enabling free traffic flow from Al Khail Road to Business Bay.

Traffic improvements were made in 2013 year aimed at enabling smooth traffic between the community and Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road. However, access to Al Khail Road remains limited to this point.