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More people take the bus in Sharjah

SHARJAH — While Sharjah Transport keeps developing its bus fleet, more people start using its public bus network which marked a significant rise of 12 per cent this year in terms of commuters.

Rahma Chamsi, Assistant Director of Sharjah Transport Corporation said as many as 3,790,826 commuters have used Sharjah’s internal public buses during the first six months of this year as compared to 3,383,811 over the same period last year.

“This is basically because of the additional bus routes operated and vehicles added to the public bus fleet.”

Head of Franchise Department at the corporation, Raba Al Marzugy, specifically attributed the increase to the eight new bus routes launched on January1.

“The public buses in service within Sharjah city have been increased from 70 to 90, and those transported an average of 21,000 commuters per day this year against 18,750 last year.”

Of the 16 bus routes operative in Sharjah city, bus route No14 had been the most favoured to the public with 46 per cent increase in the number of commuters.

“1,735,000 commuters used the bus route which connects Al Sharq bus stop with Sharjah International Airport,” she said.

More spacious and convenient vehicles as well as bus routes and stops are to be launched very soon in response to pressing demand from the public.

The public transport network spans regular and express buses which are distributed inside the city of Sharjah. “Regular buses stop in every 300 to 600 metres distance while express buses have stops at longer distances,” Marzugy said.

“As many as 2,715,253 passengers have used regular routes till June this year compared to 2,575,801 in 2009, representing an increase of five per cent.

A rise of 33 per cent in using express routes has also been registered this year with 10,75,547 commuters against 808,010 last year.

Marzugy said that the number of bus drivers has also rose by 29 per cent during the first six months this year, with 243 drivers against 189 in the first half of 2009. “Other than the special driving licence required, all bus drivers must behave well, and deal with the public in a proper way,” she said.

ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

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