Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) says that 23 million passengers have used the Red line of Dubai Metro since it began operations in September 2009 up until 1 July.

“The number of metro users is steadily on the rise since the launch of the service on 9 September 2009. Ridership jumped from 1.8 million passengers in October 2009 to 3.3 million passengers in June, an increase rate as high as 185 per cent,” says Matter al-Tayer, chairman of the board and executive director of the RTA.

When the metro first began operating in September 2009, the total amount of passengers was just under 1.2 million.

In May 2010, the total number of metro users increased to 3.2 million and 3.3 million in June.

On 1 July alone, 130,529 passengers used the metro.

Khalid bin al-Waleed, near the BurJuman mall in Bur Dubai, was the busiest station, with 3.1 million passengers. The Mall of the Emirates station is in second place with 3.1 million passengers and Al-Ittihad station is the third busiest station with 3 million passengers.

Deira City Centre and Al-Rashidiya are the fourth and fifth busiest stations.

Dubai Metro’s Green line is scheduled to begin in August 2011 after a year-long delay resulting from a design change (MEED 21:2:10).