Fare is Fair

The RTA today finally 'unleashed' their fare structure for the new metro system! The news was actually broken by the paper Xpress on June 4th, but I have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks.

As I figured, the fares are quite fair (har har), with the priciest ticket – a ride from one end to the other in ‘gold class’ coming in at AED 11.8, bargain! That is almost the same as a one zone ticket bought with an Oyster card discount on the London Underground, and slightly more expensive than a ride on the New York City Subway (no zones in NYC). I don’t think that either NY or London’s trains could be considered ‘gold’ by any stretch of the imagination either.

For your more average ride the fare will be even cheaper. There are a total of five zones, but the maximum fare is for three zones, i.e. if you travel between 4 or 5 zones the fare will be the same as for 3 zones. Further, there are discounts for pre-paid cards as opposed to single ride tickets (like the Oyster card). If you are going 3km or less, the price is even cheaper than the single zone fare. Here is the breakdown (all fares in AED):

A quick look at the price structure reveals that the gold glass is double the silver class and the student / senior fare is half of the prepay silver class fare (this would make sense since you need to get a special card for students and seniors and thus would be pre-paying).

The monthly rate is a bargain, with a 3+ zone monthly card coming in at a very reasonable AED 270 (cheaper than a monthly in NYC), two zones for AED 180 and one zone for AED 100. They only give the 3+ zone fare for Students and elderly (170 and 200 respectively), so I am not sure if there is a discount for shorter journeys (I would imagine so). A day pass is set at 14 dirham, though I would suspect this is only for one zone, no word on how much it will be for additional zones.

The cards are good for all forms of RTA transit including: Metro, Bus, and Water bus. One fare is good on all modes within each journey. According to RTA chief Mattar Al Tayer (via Xpress):

Using a unified card, riders can pay a single fare to ride the metro within one zone and then catch a bus within 30 minutes free of charge. The single fare will cover all transportation up to three transfers in one zone for a total 180 minutes, he said.

The ever cheery Tayer, shows off the blue Nol card - but where is his photo?

The fare structure will extend to the buses as well, so bus fares will be going up rather dramatically in some cases. For instance the X25 (which I rode when I first arrived in Dubai) from the Marina to Al Gubaibah bus station is currently a 2 dirham flat fare; under the new structure it would cost a minimum of 5.80 dirham, a 290% increase (assuming the distance would be at least 3 zones – a reasonable guess). Though this is still cheaper than taking the bus in New York.

The minimum fares will be available to those who buy the permanent ‘Nol’ card (which means fare in Arabic). These are available for 6 dirham, though you need to spend 20 dirham to purchase one – 6 goes to the cost of the card and the remaining 14 dirham goes towards your fare. You can add up to 500 dirham of value to your card at any one time.

The cards will come in four different varieties; silver, gold, blue and red. The silver card allows you to ride in regular silver class, and the gold in uppity gold class. The blue card is a registered card and will feature your smiling mug on the front. The blue card will also allow you to manage your account online and receive a refund if your card is stolen; they can be used for either gold or silver fares. The red cards will consist of paper tickets which can be used for up to 10 journeys or for 5 days maximum, there is no extra cost to purchase the red ticket.



The zones seem to be set up for quite a bit of system expansion, as the majority of rides at the moment will most likely fall within two zones. Here is the zone map:

Metro to the danger zone

Zones 3 and 4 aren't going to see a whole lot of use at first, and zone 1 seems applicable only to those working in Jebel Ali. I have lucked out, as it appears I will both live and work in zone 5, making my journey cheap, cheap, cheap!

All in all, I think the RTA has done a fairly good job. It seems like even the gold class fares are reasonably cheap. If the fares end up including free transfers to the buses, I would sum up my reaction in two words, bargain mate!