The 50 smart information kiosks deployed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) a year ago in 23 metro stations on the Red and Green lines were hugely popular, recording 977,112 users in one year. Such kiosks offer a diverse cast of information that serve the needs & expectations of metro riders, and the success of the project was culminated by winning the Best Internal Cooperation category in the Hamdan bin Mohammed Award for Smart Government.

“Launching the Metro Smart Information Kiosks is in line with the vision of our prudent leadership to transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world within three years. These kiosks were therefore contemplated and introduced to meet the needs of the metro riders, offering them all-round information about the use of the metro and the smooth travel experience between various stations,” said Abdullah Yousef Al Ali, CEO of RTA Rail Agency.

“The systems in hand offer an array of services such as: names and locations of stations, journey planner, journey time, Dubai Map with Tariff Zones, Dubai map on Google Map along with continuous updates, timetables by station name and waiting time, services provided at stations, a separate map of each station, fare structure, types of cards & respective polices, journey cost calculator, offences & violations, metro code of conduct, timetables of feeder buses at stations, lodging of complaints & suggestions online, and capturing metro information provided in brochures & publications using the barcode technology of smartphones. These systems are made bilingual (Arabic and English enabled) and have large touch screens making them user-friendly,” explained Al Ali.

Highlighting the key stations offering such service, the CEO of RTA Rail Agency said: “There are 16 stations offering this services on the Red Line namely: Rashidiya, Airport T1 & T3, Deira City Center, Rigga, Union, Burjuman, Abu Dhabic Commercial Bank, Al Jafiliya, World Trade Center, Emirates Towers, Financial Center, Burj Khalifa- Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Internet City and Ibn Battuta). 7 stations run the service on the Green line namely: Airport Free Zone, Stadium, Abu Hail, Salah Aldin, Baniyas, Al Ghubaiba and Al Fahidi.”