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28 March 2024

It's Metro or home for New Year's eve revellers in Dubai today

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

Dubai Metro is the most preferred mode of transportation among those who go out on New Year's Eve.

“This year, a million visitors are expected to visit the area around Burj Khalifa, and the Metro and bus are the preferred means of transportation,” says Muhammad Yousuf Al Mudharreb, Director of Unified Automated Fare Collection at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
 
On New Years’ Eve all means of transportation will be available round-the-clock.
 
Last week Ahmed Mohammed Al Hammadi, Head of the team dealing with public transport systems, Metro and taxis during official and annual events, was quoted by this website as saying: “The Metro will operate round-the-clock starting from 6am on 31/12/2012 up to 01/01/2013 where it is anticipated to transport more than 132,000 passengers on that day.
 
According to a poll ran by this website, the majority of the New Years’ Eve audience prefers the Metro to mobilise on the much anticipated evening.
 
Choosing between the Metro, bus, taxi, 20 per cent of the respondents indicated that the Metro would be the preferred method of transport.
 
Only three per cent of the respondents said they would opt for the taxi on new Years’ Eve, and the number of people thinking to take the bus is to be neglected in the poll.
 
However, 23 per cent of the respondents opted for the car as a means of transportation; more than the number of Metro users.
 
Even more people said they would rather avoid any means of transportation and stay home; out of the 539 people taking part in the poll 53% ticked this option.
 
Last year 800,000 people visited the Downtown area to witness the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
 
“We expect an increase of 15-20 per cent in the number of visitors to this area,” Muhammad adds.

Extra measures are taken by RTA on the four most crowded metro stations, being Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, Financial Center, Emirates Towers and Business Bay.

On these stations passenger do not need to swipe their Nol cards to get onto the metro, and the charge will be deducted once they check out.