Baniyas Square Metro Station Overview
Baniyas Square is a Green Line station in Zone 5, in the old Deira side of the Creek. It is station G21, one stop north of the Union Red and Green Line interchange and one stop south of Gold Souq.
The station sits at the foot of Baniyas Square itself, one of Dubai's oldest civic squares, and serves the dense old-Deira shopping streets around Naif and Al Sabkha. Exit 1 puts you about ten minutes' walk from the Spice Souk on the Creek edge, which makes it a more honest starting point for the spice market than the Gold Souq station two stops further north.
First and last train from Baniyas Square Station
These times come from the official RTA timetable. For the exact minute on the day you travel, the RTA S'hail app is the live source.
| Direction | First train | Last train |
|---|---|---|
| To Creek (Green Line) | 5:02 AM daily | 12:43 AM daily |
| To Etisalat by e& (Green Line) | 5:12 AM daily | 12:42 AM (Mon to Wed, Sun) 12:44 AM (Thu to Sat) |
Book a Dubai Creek heritage walk
A guided walk around Baniyas Square, the spice and gold lanes, and the abra dock is the easiest way to read this side of the Creek. Most walks start within five minutes of Exit 1.
Baniyas Square Station opening hours and facilities
Baniyas Square station keeps the standard RTA opening hours, the same right across the network:
- Monday to Thursday: 5:00 AM to 12:00 AM
- Friday: 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM
- Saturday: 5:00 AM to 12:00 AM
- Sunday: 8:00 AM to 12:00 AM
Baniyas Square has the standard Dubai Metro facilities, confirmed in the official RTA passenger guide. The station is step-free, with lifts to all levels, tactile guidance paths, and dedicated wheelchair spaces on every train. Nol card machines and a ticket counter sit inside the concourse, alongside bilingual signage and information screens. Du Wi-Fi covers the network.
Every regular train carries three cabin types: Gold Class at one end, a Women and Children cabin with pink signage, and Standard cabins. Door pictograms on the platform show where each cabin stops. The station has at least one bus connection, dedicated Metro Police, CCTV throughout, and emergency call points on every platform and train.
For the Spice Souk, use Exit 1 and walk towards the Creek along Baniyas Road. It is about a ten minute walk, mostly shaded, and ends right at the Spice Souk arch on the Deira waterfront. Most first-timers head for Gold Souq station two stops further north, but Baniyas Square is closer to the spice end of the market.
A civic square with a working past
Baniyas Square has been at the centre of Deira’s commercial life since the 1960s, when it was laid out as the main civic open space on the Deira side of the Creek. The square ran the Dubai trade fair in 1968, hosted the public Eid celebrations of the era, and later carried the city’s first multi-storey neon signage. The buildings that line it now are mostly hotels, jewellers, currency exchanges and South Asian restaurants, with the gold-and-silver wholesale trade still active off the side streets.
The square’s everyday name for decades was Cinema Square, after the two single-screen cinemas that ran on it from the 1970s. The Strand and Plaza cinemas, both Indian-language houses, were Deira fixtures until the rise of the multiplex malls in the 1990s ended the single-screen era. Both have since closed, but the name has stuck in conversation, especially with older taxi drivers.
The honest stop for the Spice Souk
The Gold Souq Metro station, two stops further north, is named after the gold market but actually drops you closer to the residential lanes than the souk entrance, as the Gulf News feature on the lanes notes. Regular riders use Al Ras for the Gold Souk and Baniyas Square for the Spice Souk: the walk from Exit 1 here, along Baniyas Road, ends at the Spice Souk arch on the Deira waterfront, where the wooden dhows still tie up. The walk is about ten minutes, mostly shaded, with the buy-and-haggle range running from saffron and dried limes to oudh and rose water. Most stalls take cash only and most stallholders speak enough English and Hindi to bargain comfortably.
A short hop to the abra dock
The Deira side of the Creek has two ways across to Bur Dubai by water. The traditional wooden abras leave from Deira Old Souk Abra Station, about fifteen minutes’ walk from Exit 1, and cross to the Bur Dubai abra dock for AED 1 in cash. The bigger air-conditioned RTA water buses, also at the same dock, charge AED 2 and go further down the Creek to Al Seef and Al Jaddaf. The full Spice Souk plus abra crossing plus Bur Dubai abra dock loop, which goes through some of the oldest streets in the city, takes about ninety minutes on foot.
Older Deira residents still call the square Cinema Square, after the two single-screen cinemas that ran here from the 1970s. The name is now informal and you will not see it on signs, but it is useful to know when older taxi drivers use it for directions.
Fares from Baniyas Square Station
Fares depend on how many zones your trip crosses, not how many stations you pass. A Silver Nol card costs AED 3 within one zone, AED 5 across two zones, and AED 7.50 for three or more zones, per the RTA Nol fares page. A personal Blue Nol card pays the same as Silver. Gold Class costs double: AED 6, 10 or 15 across the same bands.
Without a Nol card, the Red ticket is a separate, higher tariff of AED 4, 6 or 8.50 by zone band, and the blank ticket costs AED 2 to buy. Children aged five and under travel free, and travel is free for People of Determination.
| Destination | Stops | Zones | Fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall | 8 | 2 | AED 5.00 |
| Mall of the Emirates | 12 | 3 | AED 7.50 |
| Expo 2020 | 24 | 5 | AED 7.50 |
| Airport Terminal 3 | 6 | 1 | AED 3.00 |
| Union | 1 | 1 | AED 3.00 |
Metro Stations Before and After Baniyas Square Station
- Union (G20): The stop after Baniyas Square on the Green Line going towards Etisalat by e&
- Gold Souq (G22): The stop after Baniyas Square on the Green Line going towards Creek
Get a Dubai travel eSIM
A prepaid eSIM gives you data the moment you arrive, useful for the RTA S'hail app and offline maps around the old-Deira lanes.