What gets you fined on the Dubai Metro?
RTA publishes a fixed fine for each offence. Visitors mostly run into four: riding without a valid fare, eating or drinking where it is not allowed, sitting in a cabin reserved for another group, and carrying alcohol — fined for carrying, not only for drinking.
RTA publishes a fixed amount for each offence on its own Metro page, and the list is longer than most visitors expect. Below are the ones a visitor can realistically commit without meaning to, in RTA’s own terms.
The fines a visitor is likely to meet
| Offence (RTA’s wording, shortened) | Fine |
|---|---|
| Travelling without paying, or entering or leaving the fare area without paying | AED 200 |
| Using a card designated for someone else | AED 200 |
| Eating or drinking where it is not allowed | AED 100 |
| Accessing or sitting in areas designated for specific categories | AED 100 |
| Putting feet on seats | AED 100 |
| Smoking | AED 200 |
| Carrying alcoholic drinks | AED 500 |
| Sleeping where sleeping is prohibited | AED 300 |
Each line in the table is a single amount, not a range. RTA’s list also covers vandalism, weapons and misuse of safety equipment at higher amounts; those are left out here because nobody commits them by accident.
The three that catch visitors
The cabin. The fine for AED 100 is the one that applies to cabins reserved for particular passengers. RTA names two such cabins: cabins for women and children only, and cabins for Gold Class ticket holders only. A man who steps into the women’s cabin on a crowded platform, or anyone who sits in Gold Class on a Silver card, is inside that rule. Which cabin you may use is set out in which Metro cabin you can ride in.
Food and drink. RTA’s wording is AED 100 for eating or drinking “in areas where eating and drinking are not allowed”. The page does not list those areas, and its wording makes no exception for water. Until you are back outside the fare gates, the safe reading is that the rule applies.
Alcohol. The offence is carrying, not drinking. A sealed bottle in a shopping bag is still an alcoholic drink carried on public transport. At AED 500, it is the largest fine in the table above.
Fares and cards
The fare fine, AED 200, is worded to cover entering or leaving the fare area without payment, not only riding. The exit gate is part of the fare system.
The card fine, AED 200, is worded around a card “designated for others”. If a card was issued in someone else’s name, it is not yours to use, however it came to you.
RTA lists each offence as a separate line. Its page does not say how several at once are handled, so this page does not add them up.
What this page does not tell you
It does not say how fines are collected, whether they can be paid on the spot, or how they are contested. RTA’s Metro page gives the amounts and not the procedure, and we are not filling in the procedure from elsewhere.
It also does not claim that every offence is enforced every time. It gives the published amount, which is the figure you are exposed to.
Related questions
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Change history for this page
No changes since publication.
Every number on this page comes from a primary source and was last read on or after 2026-09-24. Fares, opening hours and rules change between our checks — if your plan depends on an exact figure, open the source and read today’s number for yourself. Sources used here: RTA. the full changelog ·every source we track