Dubai’s transport authority said on Sunday that the first coaches for Al Sufouh Tram System will arrive later this week.
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said they will be delivered to Jebel Ali port in the middle of this week.
The tram which was shipped from France last month consists of seven coaches and constitutes the first batch of 11 trams in the first phase, with nearly 14 trams to be added in the second phase to make a total of 25 trams.
Mattar Al Tayer, chairman and executive director of the RTA, said: “At the end of this month, the RTA will run the technical run of the tram in the depot’s rails, and the test run will then be carried out in distance of about 2km outside the depot.”
He said the test would continue and expand gradually until the official operation of the tram in November 2014.
He added: “Over the past months, the contractor has conducted the first technical test run of the tram on the 700-metre test track in Alstom Factory in France.”
The tram is expected to lift about 27,000 riders per day at the start of operations in 2014, and the ridership is bound to hit 66,000 riders per day by 2020.
In September, it was announced that UK facilities manager Serco will operate the new Dubai Tram network under a AED105m ($28.6m) deal with the RTA.
Eight trams will operate in the initial phase, slated for November 2014, and are expected to lift about 3,500 passengers per hour per direction.
Each tram measures 44 metres in length and has a capacity to carry about 300 passengers. They will have a First Class (Gold Suite) section and one cabin designated for women and children.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 2011, but has been plagued by cash concerns in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Designed to stretch 14km along Al Sufouh Road, the tram is set to be the world’s first to run with ground power feeding the entire line, eliminating the need for overhead wires.
The first phase of the project will span 10.6km and cost AED4bn, and will see 11 of the network’s 17 stations open to the public.
On completion, the tram will link with the Dubai Metro at three stations along Sheikh Zayed Road and will also tie-up with the monorail on the Palm Jumeirah.
Follow us on
