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With just five days to go before Expo 2020 comes to a close, it looks like all roads are leading to the world fair and public transport is the hero here, helping move this massive influx of people to and from the Expo site
The number of visitors travelling on Expo Rider and standard RTA buses from Dubai and Sharjah to Expo have increased 10-fold in the last couple of days, a top RTA official told Khaleej Times. Mohammed Al Ali, Director of Buses, Public Transport Agency at RTA Dubai, said they anticipate the rush to increase over the coming days and are working on all possibilities to ensure passengers have a comfortable experience while travelling to Expo 2020 Dubai. “We are doing our best to mobilise the huge number visitors to Expo 2020, which has witnessed a sharp increase in the past few days,”
At Jubail Bus stand in Sharjah, many Expo 2020 visitors were seen hopping into standard RTA double decker buses for the first leg of their Expo 2020 journey on Friday morning. Al Ali revealed that the RTA had increased the number of double decker buses to Al Baraha bus stand and Al Ghubaiba bus station from Al Jubail in Sharjah, to cater to the extra rush. “The Expo Riders are running at full capacity of 55 seats and other passengers are using standard buses to reach Al Ghubaiba and Al Baraha stations before continuing their journey on the Metro,” Al Ali said.
On top of that the capacity has been doubled by using double decker buses catering at full capacity of 74 pax/bus at Al Baraha and Al Ghubaiba due to demand.
“We have seen more people travelling to the Expo by standard RTA buses and have accordingly increased the number of buses and also deployed double-decker and coach-type buses to meet the demand. In addition, the frequency has also been revised and increased,” Al Ali added.
The RTA has put in service an additional 31 buses on top of the allocated fleet of 157 buses across the UAE in the last two weeks visitors. The RTA is transferring an average of 37,500 passengers/day through the Expo Riders and about 246,000 pax/day through the internal shuttle buses at Expo which move people between gates and from the parking lot to the gates
There are three ways Sharjah residents can commute to Expo 2020 by using public transport.
Expo Rider, which takes people from Sharjah to Expo 2020 free of charge. The capacity on these buses are however limited.
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Standard RTA buses which travel to Union, Al Baraha or Al Ghubaiba bus stations, from where passengers can continue on the next leg by using Dubai Metro.
Sharjah buses drop passengers to Centerpoint Metro station, from where passengers can take a Metro to Expo 2020
Likewise, Abu Dhabi Authority buses drop passengers to Ibn Battuta Metro Station from where they can travel to the Expo.
