Dubai Metro services increased

With Dubai Metro at the core of the public transportation network and playing a vital role in the daily lives of thousands commuters every day, the fare of a trip on the metro is a topic of great concern.

Fortunately, it is not only the concern of the end consumer. At the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai efforts are undertaken to secure the least likely fluctuation in price of the much-preferred transport option.

Baha Al Qudrah, respsonsible for revenue collection policies at the RTA explained these efforts at a seminar titled ‘Increasing Revenues’ held at the UITP Mena Congress yesterday. “We are implementing strategies to press the cost of a metro ticket,” he stated.

The sale of metro tickets makes up for 73 per cent of revenue of the metro operations, he explained. The remaining 27 per cent is raised by implementing alternative strategies. One such strategies is the Naming Rights Project.

Since 2008, the RTA has gathered $300 million with the Naming Rights Project, a unique public-private partnership programme, Al Qudrah explained.

As soon as the completion of the development of the countries’ first metro network was in sight, the public was offered the opportunity to share its anticipated success. In return for a list of station rights, companies were incented to invest in one of the stations.

Five years down the line, there are 13 stations that are named after partners, such as Noor Bank, Nakheel, First Gulf Bank, Etisalat, and more recently Burjuman and Danube. Soon, more metro stations will be renamed after new partners.

The Naming Rights project is the most successful source of revenue other than the ticket-sale driven revenue, said Al Qudrah. “Advertising and retail on metro stations follow, in that order.

"These projects help to stabilize the price of a metro ticket,” al Qudrah explained. “This does not mean that the price of a ticket will be reduced. But the facilities that are provided in Dubai Metro are increasing, while the cost for a ticket remains the same,” he concluded.

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