RTA Teams With Strategic Partners To Deliver Best Rail Services

Roads & Transport Authority – Manal Khalid: The Customers Council of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has recently held its 26th gathering with the strategic partners of the Rail Agency to discuss the commercial affairs of the Dubai Metro as regards the positioning of ads as well as the naming rights of the metro stations and retail outlets. Such interaction will enhance the cooperation between stakeholders, raise customer satisfaction, and deliver quality services at world-class standards.

The gathering, which was chaired by RTA Board Member, CEO and Chairperson of RTA Customer Council Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, was attended by the Director of Rail Planning & Development Abdul Rida Abu Al Hassan, Director of Customer Service Ahmed Mahboob and a plethora of rail executives, strategic partners and external customers.

At the outset of the gathering Al Mulla praised the efforts made by all parties capable of contributing to the optimal improvement of RTA services, bringing them at par with world-class standards of the industry. This is particularly relevant as the Dubai Metro, which has been accomplished by RTA on time, is a towering public transport achievement not only at the local level, but also across the globe. He stressed the importance of maintaining this continuous interaction with the Rail Agency clients as it helps strengthen the relationships and identify suggestions capable of improving the business process to deliver the best customer service experience.

The gathering was interceded by a visual presentation depicting the services delivered through various channels either online via RTA portal, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter or Customer Service Centers, RTA Head Office, and Call Center which receives about 4500 calls everyday including inquiries, reports, suggestions or complaints lodged by customers and directed to the concerned bodies for further necessary action.

For his part the Director of Rail Planning & Development Abdul Rida Abu Al Hassan said that the vision and mission statement of the Rail Agency stems from RTA’s vision of Safe & Smooth Transport for All. "We are continuously endeavouring to upgrade the means of public transport in the Emirate of Dubai, figure out various solutions to bring about improvements, and deliver services to the satisfaction of all concerned parties.

Abu Al Rida made a video presentation casting light on all related commercial aspects of the metro including commercial ads; which are crucial to investors in promoting their brands and trade names in all facilities related to the metro, be it footbridges, stations, rail track pillars and emergency exits as well as audio-visual systems onboard or at stations; offering them huge exposure to various spectrums of the community.

As to the metro naming rights, Abu Al Hassan said: "Displaying the trade names of businesses and organizations on the metro stations is a great and effecting branding tool particularly as each station is privileged by a unique value calculated on the basis of its excellent location and massive number of users. The naming rights initiative, the first of its kind worldwide, provides significant contribution to uplifting the branding and advertising prospects, and offers innovative opportunities for branding; which in turn offers businesses a host of unprecedented benefits highlighted by placing the trademark on the temporary sign of the station, road maps & RTA portal, and awareness and marketing campaigns of the Dubai Metro project.

As to the retail outlets inside stations, the Director of Rail Planning & Development, said: "Negotiations are underway with different entities as regards the opening of retail outlets for selling foodstuffs, confectionary, gifts, flowers, exchange shops, banks and other convenient shops to serve the metro riders. Recently 116 retail outlets were offered for rent on the Red Line, and 79 outlets were offered for rent on the Green Line.

The Director of RTA Investment and Commercial Services Abdullah Yousef called on all strategic partners and investors to check the information about Phase 2 of the Naming Rights project that has recently been uploaded in RTA website.

Then the RTA officials and strategic partners of the Rail Agency engaged in dialogues and discussions to probe the opinions of each other. The bulk of strategic partners called for providing monthly statistics on the most popular stations along with breakdown of nationalities, residents and visitors for more transparency and better view as investors need to study the market condition and compare it with other competitors in order to encourage them renew the naming right. They also expressed interest in a tailor-made program offering them access to these details and appropriate statistical data.

Abu Al Hassan responded saying: "The Mall of the Emirates Station is the busiest station with daily ridership almost reaching 11,000 passengers of different categories, nationalities and ages. The increased number of visitors of the station is attributed to the pedestrian walkway linking the station with the Mall; enabling users a smooth access to and from the station. There are future plans to link all metro stations adjacent to malls with such walkways.

One of the strategic partners called for taking immediate action on the part of the RTA to address any failure in the air-conditioning or lighting inside the footbridges in order to avoid any negative feedback from users.

Another customer from Emaar Co. shed light on Burj Khalifa Station and the congestion experienced by the station where visitors tend to exceed half a million per day during Eids and other occasions; a situation which warrants RTA officials to take appropriate procedures to ease the severity of congestions. Abu Al Hassan replied that there is a future plan for this station involving studying the viability of constructing a footbridge linking the station with the Mall and increasing the number of feeder buses deployed to handle these bulky numbers.

RTA Board Member, CEO and Chairperson of RTA Customer Council Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla stated that a special team had been set in the RTA headed by the CEO of Rail Agency with membership comprising the directors of operational departments all over RTA sectors. "Such a team is to be tasked with supervising and organizing national & social events among others in cooperation with the Dubai Police, Unified Ambulance and a host of other entities embracing these events. This will help streamline the traffic movement on Dubai roads, ensure smooth traffic flow, and provide public transport means, including buses and taxis, to pick them up smoothly to the metro stations," he added.

One of the customers inquired why Jebel Ali Station on the Red Line is not operated. The Director of Rail Planning & Development attributed the reasons for not operating Jebel Ali and Energy Stations to the very low number of users of these stations as operating them requires the development of the neighbourhood in order to attract users and visitors.

At the end of the gathering, the strategic partners commended this effective and continued interaction with the RTA; which offers an effective practical platform for attaining higher satisfaction levels among customers and investors in order to figure out the best solutions to the development processes.
 

Emirate:  Dubai

Date: Nov 21, 2011

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