A new bus route launched between Abu Dhabi and Dubai could urge more commuters to ditch their cars and opt for public transport.
The E102 bus service, operated in cooperation between the Integrated Transport Centre, the Department of Transport in Abu Dhabi and the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai, connects the industrial area of Mussaffah with Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai.
The bus will also stop at Abu Dhabi International Airport, depending on demand.
The first journey of the day from Dubai to the capital will depart from Ibn Battuta metro station at 4.28am and will arrive at Mussaffah Shabiya bus station at 6.10am. The last journey will depart Dubai at 22.28pm and will arrive in Abu Dhabi at 12.10am.
For the Abu Dhabi to Dubai route, the first E102 bus will depart from Mussaffah Shabiya bus station at 12.20am and will arrive in Dubai at 2.12am. The last journey on this route will leave at 11.30pm and will arrive in Dubai at 1.10am.
The buses run at different intervals throughout the day. A full timetable can be found on the RTA or DoT website.
The journey, which takes approximately one hour and 40 minutes, means residents living in or around Mohammed Bin Zayed City and Mussaffah, which are popular working districts in the capital, no longer need to travel to Abu Dhabi's central bus station to catch a bus to Dubai.
This year, a total of 327 new buses will be added to the capital's network to help ease congestion and improve travel frequency in the city.
The new E102 service is part of a wide-scale plan to improve travel accessibility across the country. By connecting popular hotspots through increased public transport options, residents are more inclined to leave their car at home during the work week.
Results from the ‘Global Traffic Scorecard’ survey released by Inrix in March 2019 revealed that Abu Dhabi and Dubai residents sit in 50 and 80 hours of traffic each year, respectively.
To tackle congestion on the UAE’s roads, transport authorities here have laid down a number of initiatives to encourage residents to use public transport, including the addition of road tolls.
This month, the RTA reported an average of 1.6 million journeys taken every day across its public transport offerings this year — marking a rise of 6.5 per cent rise in passenger numbers from the same period in 2018.
