More than 110,000 people used the Dubai Metro in its first two days of operation , representing close to 10 percent of the city’s population, UAE daily the National reported on Sunday.

Sixty-seven thousand people used on the Red Line on Thursday, the first day the network was open to the public, while a further 47,000 used it on Friday between 2 p.m. and midnight, the newspaper said.

The figures exceeded expectations of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

The metro carried 4,071 passengers per hour on average in each direction, compared to an RTA forecast of 3,500 passengers per hour, the paper said.

The huge appetite for the over the weekend was, however, overshadowed by confusion over opening times and technical problems that had staff struggling to cope with overcrowding at stations.

Thousands of passengers turned up at the 10 operational stations on Friday morning only to find them closed, unaware services on Friday do not start until 2 p.m.

Once trains did start running breakdowns and stoppages to the service left thousands either stranded at stations or trapped on trains for more than an hour.

Metro staff were forced to temporarily close stations and suspend services Friday evening due to the problems.

The disruption continued on Saturday with escalators not working and ticket machines out of order at some stations, causing long queues, the National reported.

The RTA blamed some of Friday’s disruption on passengers pressing the emergency stop buttons.

The authority said it will be reminding the public of the fines for misusing the buttons, the National reported.

The RTA said it will also be launching another educational drive over opening times and ticket prices, confusion over which was also blamed for long queues at stations.

Maktoob