By Neeraj Gangal www.arabianbusiness.com
Dubai metro will double its number of trains when seven new stations open next month, according to a report on Friday.
According to The National daily, a transport official said that the move would reduce the maximum waiting times at stations from 10 minutes to six minutes during rush hour.
Ramadan Abdullah, head of rail operations for the Roads and Transport Authority’s Rail Agency said that the number of trains plying on the Red Line will be increased to around 25 when the new stations become operative from April 25.
Currently there are 12 trains on the Red Line, the daily added.
However, passengers will still have to wait 10 minutes between trains during off-peak times, according to The National.
The remaining works in the stations on Dubai Metro’s Red Line will be completed in April 2010, and all works in the stations on the Green Line will be completed in August 2011, a senior official from Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) announced in a press release last month.
Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA said that the contractor of the Dubai Metro Project; Dubai Rail Link (DURL) Consortium; is set to complete all the remaining works on the Red Line (18 stations) on 25 April 2010.
All works in the stations on the Metro’s Green Line will be completed in August 2011, he added.
“The operation of Red Line stations will be in phases starting from April 25th, 2010; where several key stations will be operational; namely Emirates Station, Airport Terminal 1 Station, GGICO Station, Al Karama Station, World Trade Center Station, Marina Station, and Ibn Battuta Station. The remaining stations will be operated over the following months of 2010” Al Tayer said.
More than 842,000 people used Dubai’s public transport systems a day on average last year, official figures reveal.
The number is set to rise in 2010 with the full opening of the Metro’s Red Line next month.
About 35 million passengers are forecast to travel on Dubai Metro this year.
