By Shane McGinley www.arabianbusiness.com
Dubai Metro achieved 96 percent punctuality during the first half of this year, the operator of the light rail system announced on Wednesday.
Serco, who manage and operate the network on behalf of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), added that it estimates that 40m passengers will use the service this year. Currently, around 120,000 passengers use the network, which opened in September last year.
The UK-based operator released its half year financial results on Wednesday and reported a 9.8 percent rise in global revenue to £2.14bn ($3.31bn). Operating profit also rose 13 percent to £124.4m ($192.51m) for the first six months of 2010.
The AMEAA (Australasia, Middle East, Asia and Africa) region represented 10 percent of revenue and surged 37.4 percent to £218m ($337.35m).
While exact figures for the Gulf are not yet available, the report stated that the strong growth in the AMEAA region was due to “significant contributions” from the company’s transport operations in the Middle East.
Aside from its operation of the Dubai Metro, Serco recently signed a five-year $23m contract to operate and maintain the 5.4km Palm Jumeirah Monorail, which runs from Gateway Station at the trunk of the Palm Jumeriah to the Atlantis Hotel.
It also has a $5.4m annual contract to provide air traffic control and airside engineering services at the newly opened Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International, which opened in June.
It also has been awarded a $16.2m maintenance and consultancy contract for the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro Southern Line in Makkah and a $2.7m contract by the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport to manage timetable and vehicle scheduling, duty rosters, and personnel and vehicle deployment for its bus operations.
