By Elsa Baxter www.arabianbusiness.com
Developer Nakheel has hired the British company Serco to operate and maintain the Palm Jumeirah Monorail, the company said in a statement.
Serco, which maintains and operates the Dubai Metro, took over operations of the 5.5km line on Friday.
Nakheel cancelled its monorail contract with the Singaporean rail company SMRT Engineering last month, the National reports.
Ali Lootah, chairman of Nakheel said: “With the safety and comfort of Monorail users as our priority, it was vital to select an operator with the appropriate experience, skill and scale. Serco has vast knowledge of driverless transport systems and we are very pleased to be working with such a highly qualified and respected company.”
Serco has operated the award winning Docklands Light Railway in London since 1997.
The Palm Jumeirah Monorail was the first such project to be constructed in the Middle East. The system is fully automatic and driverless and can carry up to 2,400 passengers per hour per direction in four separate trains, each made up of three cars. At full capacity, the figure rises to a maximum of 6,000 people in nine vehicles.
