By Eugene Harnan www.thenational.ae
DUBAI // Seven more Metro stations came online as planned this afternoon, finally connecting some of the most populous parts of the city by rail.
After 2pm, when the first train rolled in from Jebel Ali, customers queued at the Marina stop for the first time.
Although Friday usually marks the quietest day of the Metro’s operation, a steady stream of passengers arrived at most of the new stations this afternoon. Queues of people were waiting to enter some of the new stations before they opened.
Bret Langlan, 31, from the US, lives in a one-bedroom apartment next to the Marina station. “It will be great,” he said. “Right now, I am going to use it at weekends because I don’t have to drive and it is a lot more relaxing. I’ve time to kill. When the Trade Centre station opens [on May 15] I will start taking it to work.”
The other six stations to open for the first time today were Emirates, Airport Terminal One, al Karama, Emirates Towers, Dubai Internet City and Ibn Battuta station.
The metro first opened 10 stations on September 9 last year and the Burj Khalifa station was the only station to open since. Another three stations are expected to open on May 15 with eight stations left to open.
All the stations on the 52km Red Line are now fully constructed and completed. The Green Line is expected to be finished by August 2011.
