DUBAI, 26 June 2007 — Tandem buses have arrived to the streets of Dubai. The emirate’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) unveiled yesterday its new batch of Mercedes buses.
The buses are articulated, or longer than standard city buses and bend at the middle with an accordion-style joint linking the cabins off the bus, allowing the higher-capacity vehicle to navigate corners.
Fifty-one of the 80 new buses are bi-articulated, longer buses with two joints linking three passenger cabins instead of two. The bi-articulated bus can accommodate 160 passengers while the single articulated bus houses 110 passengers.
The buses are also built low to the ground to accommodate the elderly and people with special needs.
“Through provision of advanced, high quality and cost-effective buses with an extensive geographical coverage, the RTA is seeking to increase the percentage of trips made by mass transit systems to 30 percent by 2020 and enhance integration between the various mass transport modes, such as public buses, metro and marine transport,” said Mattar Al-Tayer, the head of the RTA.
This initiative stems as part of the integrated strategic plan developed by the RTA to revamp mass transit modes in the emirate of Dubai, with a view to lure more commuters and as such contributes to minimizing traffic bottlenecks.
Al-Tayer said that the RTA has developed a plan to revamp public transport buses that includes buying 620 buses at a cost exceeding one billion dirhams to be delivered in 2007 and 2008.
Accordingly the number of buses will rise to 1,200 buses by 2008 including 170 double-deckers, 300 articulated buses, 70 ordinary standard buses, 30 airport buses and 50 medium buses.
Al-Tayer pointed out that 150 ordinary buses would be provided in December 2007 and June 2008. Moreover, 300 articulated buses would be provided in August 2007 and June 2008 while 170 double-decker buses will be delivered in September 2007 and December 2008.
“The arrival of these buses is synchronized with the ongoing process of constructing air-conditioned public bus shelters in more than 500 locations. Such shelters provide comfort and excellent services to the bus commuters particularly in summer season.
A number of services and facilities will be provided in such shelters such as ATMs, vending machines for newspapers, snacks and soft drinks. They are additionally equipped with 3 recycling units for paper, glass and metals.
The new buses are equipped with sophisticated technological systems such as the vocal announcement of the following stop and the name of the stop.
