Dubai Metro passengers have reported service disruptions Sunday morning, with some trains stalling and others moving ‘at snail’s pace’ due to technical problems.

Passengers were asked to disembark from the train at the DIFC station in the afternoon after the gates failed to open for at least 10 minutes after the train stopped with a shudder at the station, according to passengers travelling on the train.

An RTA information service official confirmed to Emirates 24/7 that both the Red and Green lines of the metro were running slow, in both directions, due to “some technical issues.” The customer service official said she wasn’t aware about how long the disruptions might last.

According to passengers, the train moving towards Rashidiya stalled at the Al Karama metro station for about half an hour, while it remained stationary for about 20 minutes at the DIFC station this afternoon.

Afia Kamran, a housewife from Abu Dhabi, told this website that she was very disappointed with the metro, as it was her first time on the train, and she had brought along her family to enjoy the trip. “I am travelling on the metro for the first time, and am extremely disappointed. I got my family along to get a feel of it,” said the lady who was on a “joyride” trip, travelling from Ibn Batuta station to Rashidiya and back, along with her two children and an elderly couple.

Bhagya Lakshmi Muthucumar, a Dubai student who is a regular passenger on the metro, said she wasn’t worried because of the intermittent stalling of the trains. “I’m not worried because this has happened in the past too,” she said. More info

Finally, since March 11, the Jebel Ali station has opened. There has been tons of feedback from several workers that work or live in Jebel Ali, since they now have the possibility to easily travel with the metro to the city center, instead of always having to take the bus or a taxi.

Where I read the news, I thought all 3 still closed stations, Energy, Jebel Ali Industrial, and Jebel Ali, would open, though only during the drive I noticed that only the Jebel Ali station opened. To that, it opened without southern access. And adding to that, only one platform is accessable, and is used for both train termination and trip resume to Rashidiya, since Jebel Ali is the last stop on the red line. So what happens, is the passengers can normally exit and enter the train at the same platform, which is usually the termination platform. Then the train changes tracks with the passengers and starts with full speed in direction Rashidiya.

Don’t ask me why the RTA has done this that way.
In the first scene the train attendant, there is one in each train, turned off the station announcements until shortly before the Jebel Ali station. Reason for that is because the Energy, and Jebel Ali Industrial stations would still be announced, even though they are not opened. This could cause a bit of confusion. You can here what it sounds like when the announcements are kept on in the last scene, where I was in a different train. Overall, it was an interesting trip.

Dubai Metro – The world’s longest driverless metro system.
Currently one line open, the red line, with 2 stations unused by now.
Green line is said to be opened in September, according to a station attendant at Jebel Ali.

With nearly 12 million passengers travelling by Dubai Metro in just six months, the world’s largest driverless rail network is well on track.

Dubai metro

Dubai Metro helps Dubai in its quest to become the city of the 21^st century — a goal that is so aggressively pursued by its leadership.

According to the statistics compiled by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), since its launch on  09/09/2009 till the end of February 2010, around 11.29 million people travelled by Dubai Metro. And if its estimated daily ridership of 80,000 commuters is anything to go by, Metro should well have crossed the 12 million mark by now.

As the opening of new metro stations at several key locations — including Airport Terminal 1, Karama, World Trade Center and Ibn Batuta Mall – scheduled on April 25, the ridership is likely to shoot up faster. Considering the current trend and developments, the RTA expects the ridership to reach 35 million by the end of this year.

With the first half of the Metro Year behind us, we crunch the numbers to bring you the finer details of the railways’ performance.

If consistency is any virtue, Airport Terminal 3 (AT3) station deserves a mention first up for its truly amazing rate of consistency. According to the passenger statistics of the RTA, among the 11 stations that currently operate on the Red Line, the AT3 station has done consistently well to have the least passenger traffic on a daily basis. The station has been able to post a passenger turnout upwards of 4,000 on a day – 4,806 to be precise – only once, that was on November 19, 2009. It also has the dubious distinction of having the least passenger turnout on a single day — 1,151 on New Year Day.

Following closely in the consistency strata, though with opposite results, is the Mall of the Emirates (MoE) station. Posting the highest of 19,758 — which to date is the biggest turnout for any station on a single day — the station is by far the busiest. The station’s overall figure approached a staggering two million in six months.

Highlighting the special bond the Metro and the Mall of the Emirates has shared since the beginning, Ramadan Abdullah, Director of Rail Operation Department at the RTA Rail Agency, said, “The Mall of the Emirates Station is still the most attractive station to both commuters and tourists, as the total number of metro passengers who used the station from 09/09/09 up to February 2 this year reached 1,578,447, accounting for 16 per cent of the total passenger count.”

The Mall of the Emirates station took over as the topper from Rashidiya and Khalid Bin Walid (KBW) stations on the third day of Metro’s operation and has never looked back since, clocking highest posting everyday except for a handful of occasions when KBW took the lead. Rashidiya and KBW were the busiest stations on September 10 and 11 last year but were left behind since then by MoE station at fourth and second positions, respectively.

Though it has a highest single day’s posting of only 13,354 passengers, Union Square Station (USS) is another consistent performer, posting a five-figure turnout on more than two dozen occasions. USS is not far behind KBW at number three in stations’ listing.

In terms of daily traffic, both the best and worst days fell in the first month of metro’s operation. With passenger traffic of 97,881, September 21, 2009 has so far been the best day for Dubai Metro. The second best came just a day before when 97,524 people got on the trains.

Ironically, the worst days came when the excitement and euphoria surrounding metro was seemingly at the highest — the first week. But, the statistics prove it to be wrong. September 13, 14, 16 and 15 were worst four days of Dubai Metro with passenger turnout of 42,346, 42,782, 44,155 and 42,972, respectively. The average daily ridership is estimated at 80,000.

Passenger number picked up steadily in the second week of metro’s operation with two consecutive days attracting close to hundred thousand passengers, while dropping back to the lows of 40s by the end of September.

Understandably, September also proved to be the worst month with a total ridership of 1,196,920. The ridership figure kept improving every month and hasn’t dropped even once in the last six months. October posted 1,767,879, while November, December and January clocked 1,921,421, 2,006,324 and 2,186,393, respectively. Though the complete figures for February were not yet made available by the RTA, even a conservative estimate puts it around 2.5 million.

The best and worst days for the month of September are both the same as that of the general period.

However, whether it reflected people’s belief or it was just a coincidence, 13^th proved to be the worst day for most months,

Thursday, 22^nd, was the best for October with 73,124 passengers, whereas Tuesday, 13^th, was the worst with 50,863 commuters.

In November, 28^th day proved the busiest with 94,643 people, while 13^th once again proved unlucky with 49,593 riders.

Last day of last year was the best day of December with 77,096, whereas 11^th day proved the worst for the month with 44,424 passengers.

As for January, the top grosser was the fourth day of the month recording 88,357 passengers and the worst the first day with 53,742 travellers.

“Dubai Metro has succeeded in attracting millions of people towards using the metro as their main mode of transportation. It has also contributed in reducing traffic congestions and emission from cars and motorcycles, thus assisting in conserving the environment,” added Ramadan, pointing out the positive impact of the rail network on Dubai.

Public Transport at a Glance

The RTA’s mass transit modes including Dubai Metro, public buses, marine transport and taxis had transported more than 288.777 million people in 2009 and the daily ridership of public transport modes exceeded 842,000 people.

In 2009, a total of 120 million people commuted on public buses, with a daily ridership of 325,000 passengers.

The ridership of marine transport systems — abras and water buses — reached 17 million. Around 50,000 people sailed on abras daily and 1,500 people used water buses.

Taxis in Dubai emirate make about 192,000 trips everyday, carrying around 385,000 people. In 2009, taxis made trips in excess of 70 million serving around 140.45 million persons.

Among its strategic objectives, the RTA aims at raising the share of mass transportation systems from 6 per cent in 2009 to 30 per cent by 2020.

H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), announced that project completion has reached 97 per cent in the bridges at the approaches of the entry/exit points of Rashidiya Metro Station, and 95 per cent of bridges and roads leading to Meydan Racecourse at Nad al-Sheba area.

Bridges leading to Rashidiya Metro Station are currently undergoing final touches by the contracting company in preparation for opening. The project includes construction of directional ramps at the intersection of Emirates Road and Khawaneej Road. It also includes construction of two bridges at Khawaneej Road in order to facilitate vehicular movement from and to the Park and Ride facility of Rashidiya Metro Station with a total length of 2.5 km. Early last year RTA has opened phase one of the project involving a bridge leading to the entry of the Parking lot of the station; which has a capacity to house about 2700 vehicles.

“Construction of the project, which costs about 699 million dirham, comes as part of RTA drive to improve and upgrade the network of main roads in the emirate of Dubai, and link the Park-and-Ride facilities of the metro stations with the roads network within Dubai Emirate. Rashidiya Station is one of the key metro stations as it is the starting point of Dubai Metro Red Line. The station extends 130 meters in length and 30 meters in width and has a capacity to handle 11,000 passengers per hour per direction. The station has two entry points fitted with escalators and lifts to ease the movement of commuters to and from the station, and a multi-level parking lot with a capacity to accommodate 2714 vehicles in order to encourage the public to use the metro in their travels across the emirate. The ground floor of the complex has been designated for public transport modes that feed the station, and has been designed to accommodate articulated and double-deck buses and to ensure smooth traffic flow and accommodate a large number of buses at a time. The building has also been linked with footbridges extending to the opposite side of the road leading to the metro station such that the period needed to travel from the farthest point of a parking slot will not exceed 3 minutes, while addressing all safety aspects of passenger movement within the parking lot.

Al Tayer revealed that construction of Roads & Bridges Project leading to Meydan Racecourse reached an advanced stage and the contractor is about to finalize the project which encompasses construction of bridges extending 2025 meters, including two entry/exit bridges extending 710 meters and a VIP bridge linking Meydan with Dubai-Al Ain Road extending 1315 meters.

“Construction works in the project will be finalized with the launch of the 15th Dubai World Cup on 27 March 2010. The bridges will serve Meydan project; which covers an area of 76 million square feet and encompasses the biggest horseracing racetrack in the world in addition to an hotel, golf courses, malls, recreational facilities, modern stables, Godolphin gallery, waterways, restaurants and parking lots for about 10,000 vehicles.

Mohammed Al Munji: H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA, announced that project completion has reached 97 per cent in the bridges at the approaches of the entry/exit points of Rashidiya Metro Station, and 95 per cent of bridges and roads leading to Meydan Racecourse at Nad al-Sheba area.

Mattar Al Tayer

Bridges leading to Rashidiya Metro Station are currently undergoing final touches by the contracting company in preparation for opening. The project includes construction of directional ramps at the intersection of Emirates Road and Khawaneej Road. It also includes construction of two bridges at Khawaneej Road in order to facilitate vehicular movement from and to the Park and Ride facility of Rashidiya Metro Station with a total length of 2.5 km. Early last year RTA  has opened phase one of the project involving a bridge leading to the entry of the Parking lot of the station; which has a capacity to house about 2700 vehicles.

“Construction of the project, which costs about 699 million dirham, comes as part of RTA drive to improve and upgrade the network of main roads in the emirate of Dubai, and link the Park-and-Ride facilities of the metro stations with the roads network within Dubai Emirate. Rashidiya Station is one of the key metro stations as it is the starting point of Dubai Metro Red Line. The station extends 130 meters in length and 30 meters in width and has a capacity to handle 11,000 passengers per hour per direction. The station has two entry points fitted with escalators and lifts to ease the movement of commuters to and from the station, and a multi-level parking lot with a capacity to accommodate 2714 vehicles in order to encourage the public to use the metro in their travels across the emirate. The ground floor of the complex has been designated for public transport modes that feed the station, and has been designed to accommodate articulated and double-deck buses and to ensure smooth traffic flow and accommodate a large number of buses at a time. The building has also been linked with footbridges extending to the opposite side of the road leading to the metro station such that the period needed to travel from the farthest point of a parking slot will not exceed 3 minutes, while addressing all safety aspects of passenger movement within the parking lot.

Al Tayer revealed that construction of Roads & Bridges Project leading to Meydan Racecourse reached an advanced stage and the contractor is about to finalize the project which encompasses construction of bridges extending 2025 meters, including two entry/exit bridges extending 710 meters and a VIP bridge linking Meydan with Dubai-Al Ain Road extending 1315 meters.

“Construction works in the project will be finalized with the launch of the 15^th Dubai World Cup on 27 March 2010. The bridges will serve Meydan project; which covers an area of 76 million square feet and encompasses the biggest horseracing racetrack in the world in addition to an hotel, golf courses, malls, recreational facilities, modern stables, Godolphin gallery, waterways, restaurants and parking lots for about 10,000 vehicles.

Dubai metro video. 11. Jan 2010

Source:  www.youtube.com

DUBAI — After experiencing a year of poor customer turnout, Omar Hamza is hoping that the Dubai Metro will turn around his business as well as of those operating in the area.

 The owner of Shaikh Al Shamzi Embroidery, a small shop near the Al Rashidiya terminal, has been holding out for a year while road closures and construction work depleted his customer base. “So many shops closed down because people stopped coming here,” Hamza said. “Now we are starting to see people coming back. Hopefully business will pick up again.”

Hamza’s embroidery shop is part of a rag-tag marketplace of sweet shops, beauty salons and a solitary Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, around five minutes walk from the platform at the Al Rashidiya Metro station. However, many of the small business have shut down after the Metro construction work closed access roads to the marketplace, for what traders claim was a year.

“People went away and eventually they forgot we were here,” Ali, another small time businessman in the area said, “This market is a ghost town now.”

Ali, who requested that his business name not be printed said that he had only a fraction of the customers he once had prior to the Metro launch.  “I have no way to cover my expenses. I struggle to make even Dh100 in one day.”

The Al Rashidiya depot is the point of departure for the Red Line, and includes a car park for 2,700 vehicles.

With the increase in passenger traffic, it would only be a matter of time for businesses in the area to feel the benefits of the Metro, said Peyman Younes Parham, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications 
at the RTA.

“If you look at the history of any new metro system, anywhere in the world, it has always driven economic development nearby stations,” he said. “People want to live beside the stations, so houses are built and businesses prosper.

“In order to have the Metro we have had to have some construction, and that’s inevitable.  However, the long term benefits for businesses, which will stretch for 20-30 years, will be pronounced.” 

 martin@khaleejtimes.ae