RTA to begin second bus service between Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Intercity services from Dubai to Sharjah and Fujairah will also be restored

People boarding a bus at Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station before the pandemic began. The service between the capital and Dubai takes about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Srijita Chattopadhyay / The National

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will restore four intercity bus services from May 19, including the E100 route from Al Ghubaiba Bus Station to Abu Dhabi.

All intercity services were suspended in April 2020 as Covid-19 numbers increased and public health restrictions were imposed.

The E101 service from Ibn Battuta near Jebel Ali to Abu Dhabi resumed in September and will now be complemented by the E100 route from Al Ghubaiba, near Dubai Creek, to Abu Dhabi's central bus station.

The RTA will also bring back services from Al Ghubaiba Bus Station to Al Ain (E201), the E315 route from Etisalat Metro Station to Muwaileh, Sharjah, and the E700 from Union Square Bus Station in Deira to Fujairah.

The Dubai transport authority will also launch a new bus route, named F38, between Jumeirah Golf Estates Metro Station and Dubai Sports City and will alter some timings of other routes.

“Route F38 between Jumeirah Golf Estates Metro Station and Dubai Sports City via the Dubai Production City will start at 6am and terminate at 12:30am [the following day] at a frequency of 20 minutes,” said Adel Shakeri, director of planning and business development, Public Transport Agency, RTA.

“On the same date, RTA will introduce changes to some routes. It will extend Route 50 and Route N30 to reach the International City Bus Station, improve the frequency of merging Route D03 and D03A to be Route D03 only, and extend Route 367 to pass through the School of Research Science.”

Mr Shakeri said the RTA is keen to deliver a transport service that serves various members of the community.

“Requests received from various entities in the emirate are subjected to elaborate feasibility studies and extensive field surveys before the launch of the service,” he said.

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