Dubai's transport infrastructure can carry 1.6m people

Dubai's transport infrastructure was given a thorough examination on New Year's Eve and it appears to have passed with flying colours.

New figures from the emirate show that more than 1.6 million people used the city's transport systems during the evening in order to enjoy the eye-catching celebrations and incredible firework display that was put on.

Dr Aysha Al Busmait, media adviser and spokesperson for the Roads and Transport Authority, said the organisation had worked out exactly how to control vehicle movement and public transport throughout Dubai on arguably the busiest night of the year.

"The plan has taken into account integrating various transport modes and traffic systems to facilitate the movement of people to and from these areas. Metro service hours have been extended to ensure continuous service starting from 05:30 local time on December 31st until the early hours of Thursday morning, January 1st," the representative stated.

In total, some 727,829 people opted to ride Dubai's metro system on New Year's Eve, while 525,997 people opted for a taxi, 314,109 completed at least one journey by bus and 44,587 took intercity coach connections.

Just to emphasise how varied the transport options in Dubai are, more than 43,000 individuals were able to travel on water-based vessels.

Such a success on New Year's Eve is a reminder of the impressive infrastructure built up in Dubai in recent years and proof that it is capable of coping with big events that attract large crowds. It suggests the emirate is in a strong position to be a successful host of Expo 2020 when it arrives in six years' time.

Dr Aysha noted one tactic used was for the Dubai Metro to stop at only one station out of Business Bay, Dubai Mall - Burj Khalifa and Financial Center, skipping the other two.

This helped to alleviate the pressure on certain services and the use of an additional 60 feeder buses also ensured demand was met.