If you've felt like the Metro platform at BurJuman gets more crowded every month, the numbers back you up. Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has revealed that 348.1 million passengers used public transport, taxis, and shared mobility across the city in the first half of 2026, a figure that works out to roughly 1.9 million journeys a day.
The Metro remains the backbone of that movement. Across the Red and Green lines, it carried 136.5 million passengers, well ahead of taxis, which served 88.9 million riders, and public buses, which moved 85.1 million people. Together, these three modes accounted for almost 90 percent of the city's daily commute, underlining just how much of Dubai's day-to-day movement runs through rail, road, and taxi rather than private cars alone.
January stood out as the busiest month of the half-year, with 73.4 million individual journeys recorded, a total no other month came close to matching.
Where the crowds gather
The RTA's breakdown also points to exactly where Dubai's commuters are converging. BurJuman held its position as the busiest interchange station in the network, with Union Station coming in second. Both remain the connective tissue of the Metro system, linking the Red and Green lines and funnelling riders between them.
On the Red Line, Al Rigga topped the list as the busiest station, followed by Mall of the Emirates in second place and Business Bay in third. The pattern on the Green Line looked a little different, with Sharaf DG leading as the busiest station, trailed by Baniyas Square in second and Stadium in third.
For anyone navigating the network regularly, these rankings are a useful reality check. If your commute passes through Al Rigga, Sharaf DG, or either of the interchange stations, you're moving through some of the busiest points in the entire system, and the crowds you encounter are not a local quirk but part of a citywide pattern.
What the half-year figures suggest, more than anything, is a network operating at real scale. Nearly 350 million rides in six months is not just a headline number for a transport authority report, it is a snapshot of how Dubai residents and visitors actually get around, mode by mode, station by station. The Metro's dominance in that mix, carrying more riders than taxis and buses combined, says something about how central rail has become to daily life in the city, even as taxis and buses continue to carry tens of millions of people each month in their own right.
For now, the RTA's numbers offer a clear picture of the first half of 2026: a network moving close to two million people every day, with January as its peak, BurJuman and Union Station as its busiest crossroads, and Al Rigga and Sharaf DG as the standout stations on each of the Metro's two lines.
Reported by Lovin Dubai.