EXCLUSIVE: First video of trip on Dubai Metro

Tuesday, 25 August 2009 7:25 AM

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The first passengers will not be boarding the new Dubai Metro until September 9 but Arabian Businesshas obtained amateur video footage of what it is like to ride the new transport system.

Finishing touches are being made to the Red Line which when fully open will have 29 stations from Jebel Ali to Rashidya. The trains will operate every three minutes and 45 second during peak times and it will take, on average, about 69 minutes to travel from one end to the other.

The average speed of the trains on the Red Line will be 42km per hour.

Three peak services will operate per day to cater for passenger demand, from 6.30-8.30am, from 12.30-2pm and from 5.30-9pm, officials have said, with a typical day's service starting at 5am and finishing at 1am.

Last week, Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the Board and the executive director of the RTA admitted that the construction cost would increase by billions of dirhams but he did not reveal the exact figure, adding that it would be announced after the project had been finished.

More than half of the project has changed in terms of its design and facilities since its inception to cope with the growing needs of the city, Al Tayer added.

Also read: Dubai Metro reminds of Tata Nano story

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Posted by: fromUSA_Paki Tuesday, 8 September 2009 11:32 AM[UAE] - USA

The standing experience like one of the comments is true. It gets so annoying at times that you just have to shove behind someone or someone is shoving behind you, due to the space. So mind the space between each other :) better luck. The hours needs to be extended on busy routes in and out of downtown and business places making it easy for the people who hop around the city for meetings. And yea, dont discourage labourers, they are equal civilians. Moreover if they hand out student discounts and the companies can start a partial re-imbursment for the RTA to recover money even faster.

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Posted by: DotDashNet Monday, 31 August 2009 11:06 AM[UAE] - UAE

Without so many seat and most people standing and holding the upper handles, thus exposing their armpits to the public, I wonder how will the metro smell like inside the beautifully designed cabins. Will the RTA offer oxygen masks at a fair cost to sensitive customers? I'm sure most readers know what I'm talking about.

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Posted by: Mounir Tuesday, 25 August 2009 5:36 PM[UAE]

it would be nice to have an express train that will travel from one end to another making only one or two stops throughout the journey for those who need to get to the other side quicker.

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Posted by: Kareem Tuesday, 25 August 2009 4:24 PM[UAE]

Has RTA thought about the relevance (or lack thereof) of station names, what they mean to passengers and what changing a station name would entail when a sponsor decides to stop (which would be quite a prudent thing to do given that the station will probably always come to be known by its original name rather than any names that follow)? This is money grabbing at its best (or shall I say, lowest) form

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Posted by: Nidk Tuesday, 25 August 2009 2:09 PM[UAE]

It is a better idea to have not that many seats and have more standing space instead. If the Metro gets used heavily much more people will fit on it. The London tube doesnt have that many seats and can fit high numbers. It would be really useful if it ran 24hrs a day. I havent heard if this will happen or not yet.

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