By Shafaat Ahmed www.khaleejtimes.com
Bus commuters can now access a dedicated website that can help them plan the journey, explore different routes, buy the tickets as well as share their experience.
The fully loaded interactive portal was launched recently and takes commuters on a virtual ride through the bus system in Dubai.
“We have been working on it for quite some time and now we are happy to make it available to the public. It’s an upgrade on the journey planner we have, which helps a person only in planning his journey, but this will be an entirely new experience,” said Mohammed Abubaker Al Hashimi, Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development at the Public Transport Agency (PTA).
With the entire bus network of Dubai at the commuter’s disposal, with live updates on the status of buses on each of the nearly 100 routes, the planning of a journey couldn’t get easier. The website assists commuters with the bus stops to start from and end their journey, the timings, the exact fares as well as provides information on where and how to buy a Nol card.
The portal also gives users a briefing on the details of the Nol cards, types of buses, the facilities available on each of them, bus etiquette, dedicated bus lanes as well as bus stations.
But the one feature that would excite the commuters more, particularly the younger ones, is the facility to blog and share the pics as well as videos of your experience in the buses.
“This is something very new at RTA and is part of our initiative to interact closely with our customers. We hope this will help us understand and communicate with each other in a better way,” said Al Hashimi.
Urging people to use the new facility, Al Hashimi informed that a dedicated team is working 24/7 to update the site and interact with the users.
With a facebook page, a twitter account growing in popularity and a youtube channel, the RTA is seemed to have laid a vast network on the virtual world to connect with its customers.
The link to the website: www.rta.ae/wpsv5/links/buses/index.html
