Dubai bus fares: the grid, and the fares RTA does not publish
Dubai buses use the same nol zone grid as the metro: AED 3 within one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones, AED 7.50 beyond, on a Silver card. There is no daily fare cap, a journey may last 180 minutes with up to three transfers, and the Gold surcharge does not apply on buses. For the twelve intercity routes RTA operates, it publishes exactly one fare — AED 12 to Sharjah. Nothing for Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah or Hatta.
The fare grid
| Journey | Silver | Gold | Personal | Red Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Within 1 zone | AED 3 | AED 6 | AED 3 | AED 4 |
| 2 adjacent zones | AED 5 | AED 10 | AED 5 | AED 6 |
| More than 2 zones | AED 7.50 | AED 15 | AED 7.50 | AED 8.50 |
The one divergence between bus and rail, in RTA’s own words: “Gold class passengers are charged a Gold Surcharge on top of their regular fares when using the tram and metro only.” Buying Gold buys you nothing on a bus. The full picture, including the zone map problem, is on our metro and nol fares page.
Journey rules: “Max Journey Duration | 180 min” and “Max Transfer Allowed | 3”. No daily fare cap and no daily maximum is published anywhere. One pass carve-out is stated: monthly passes cannot be used on route 110 between Al Safa Bus Terminus and Al Quoz Creative Zone.
Concessions, and a naming conflict
RTA publishes the concessions clearly: “People of determination travel free-of-charge on Dubai buses and metro”, and “UAE national senior citizens, residents and students from all nationalities get 50% off”.
What it does not do is call the card the same thing twice. The fares page calls it the Personal card. The About page calls it the nol blue card. And RTA’s own 2011 brochure — still online — uses “nol Blue Card” for a general card at full adult fare, which is the opposite meaning. Neither current page carries a date, so there is no way to sequence them. The Personal card costs AED 70 including AED 20 credit and is, in RTA’s words, “Required for concession fares”.
Intercity: one published fare out of twelve routes
RTA states it runs “12 intercity lines to transport passengers to other emirates” and “17 fully equipped stations”. It does not name them, and its route lists carry route numbers and termini with no fares at all.
The single intercity fare published anywhere is for route E308, Stadium Bus Station in Dubai to Al Jubail Bus Station in Sharjah, at “AED 12/- per trip”, announced 28 April 2025 and effective 2 May 2025.
For Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah and Hatta, RTA publishes no bus fare. Every figure circulating for those corridors comes from blogs and aggregators, so this site carries none of them. The exception is Hatta, where RTA has published fares in route announcements rather than in its fare tables — those are quoted in full on the Hatta page, along with the awkward fact that RTA’s own master route list contains neither of the route numbers it announced.
No airport bus fare, and no night buses
Dubai Airports publishes only that “Buses operate from dedicated stands located at Arrivals in Terminals 1, 2, and 3” and that “A Nol card is required to travel by bus, as cash payments are not accepted” — no route numbers, no fares. It defers to RTA; RTA publishes no airport bus page. Airport buses appear to be ordinary zonal routes, but no authority states this. The airport transport page covers the options that are priced.
Night buses: nothing published at all. No page, no route list, no timetable.
Three route lists, live at once
RTA serves three bus route list PDFs simultaneously, none of which supersedes the others on the page that links them: an undated one, one whose filename says 2022 with no printed date, and one titled “Bus Route Service List January 2019”. The 2019 list carries route numbers the undated list does not.
Two Dubai–Sharjah routes to the same Sharjah terminus are each advertised as “a new intercity bus route”, seven years apart: E311 from a press release dated 30 June 2018, still presented as new, and E308 from May 2025. Neither page mentions the other.
Worst of all, RTA’s “Updated September 2011” metro brochure is a stale bus fare table too — it states “The same ticket can be used for both Metro and Bus” and then prints Silver fares of 2.30, 4.10 and 5.80 against today’s 3, 5 and 7.50. It also uses a four-band structure with a short-hop “Tier 0” band at AED 1.80 that no longer exists, so a reader gets not just old numbers but an obsolete fare architecture. It advertises a 1-day Metro and Bus permit at AED 14 that appears nowhere on the current fares page.
None of this is unique to buses. It is the pattern we document on the stale sources page.
More in Getting around
See everything in Getting around.
Common questions
How much is a bus in Dubai?
Buses use the same nol zone grid as the metro: AED 3 within one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones, AED 7.50 beyond, on a Silver card.
Is there a daily cap on Dubai bus fares?
No daily fare cap and no daily maximum is published anywhere by RTA. What is published is a journey limit: 180 minutes with up to three transfers.
How much is the bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi?
RTA does not publish it. It states that it runs twelve intercity lines and publishes exactly one fare — AED 12 to Sharjah on route E308. Every figure circulating for Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Fujairah or Ras Al Khaimah comes from third parties, so we carry none.
Is there a night bus in Dubai?
Nothing is published. No page, no route list, no timetable for a night bus service exists on RTA's site.
How much is the bus from Dubai airport?
No fare is published. Dubai Airports states only that buses leave from dedicated stands at Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and that a nol card is required because cash is not accepted. RTA publishes no airport bus page at all.