The Dubai Metro is a driverless, fully automated metro network in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. The Red Line is partly operational, the Green Line is still under construction, and further lines are planned. These first two lines run underground in the city centre and on elevated viaducts elsewhere. All trains and stations are air conditioned with platform edge doors to make this possible.

The first section of the Red Line, covering 10 stations, was ceremonially inaugurated at 9:09:09 PM on September 9, 2009, by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, with the line opening to the public at 6 AM on September 10. The Dubai Metro is the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula. More than 110,000 people, which is nearly 10 per cent of Dubai’s population, used the Metro in its first two days of operation. The Dubai Metro carried 10 million passengers from launch on 9 September 2009 to 9 February 2010 with 11 stations operational on the Red Line.

Once the 20 km Green line opens, the Dubai Metro will overtake the title of longest automated metro network from the Vancouver Skytrain, surpassing it by 3 km.

Construction

Planning of the Dubai Metro began under the directive of Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who expected other projects to attract 15 million visitors to Dubai by 2010. The combination of a rapidly-growing population (expected to reach 3 million by 2017) and severe traffic congestion necessitated the building of an urban rail system to provide additional public transportation capacity, relieve motor traffic, and provide infrastructure for additional development.

In May 2005 a AED 12.45 billion/US$ 3.4 billion design and build contract was awarded to the Dubai Rail Link (DURL) consortium made up of Japanese companies including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Kajima Corporation and Turkish firm Yapı Merkezi. The first phase (worth AED 15.5 billion/US$ 4.2 billion) covers 35 kilometres (22 mi) of the proposed network, including the Red Line between Al Rashidiya and the Jebel Ali Free Zone set for completion by September 2009 and the Green Line from Al Qusais 2 to Al Jaddaf 1. This is to be completed by June 2010. A second phase contract was subsequently signed in July 2006 and includes extensions to the initial routes. The Red Line partially opened at 9 minutes and 9 seconds past 9 PM on September 9, 2009 (9/9/9 9:9:9), inaugurated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. The construction cost of the Dubai Metro project has shot up by about 80 per cent from the original AED 15.5 billion/US$ 4.2 billion to AED 28 billion/US$ 7.6 billion. The authorities said the cost of the project did not overshoot. They attributed the increase in expenditure to the major changes in the scope and design of the project. The authorities also expect to generate AED 18 billion/US$ 4.9 billion in income over the next 10 years. But they speculate that the Metro would not be a profit-making enterprise since the fares would be subsidised.

Work officially commenced on the construction of the metro on March 21, 2006. In February 2009, a top RTA Rail Agency official said the $ 4.2 billion Dubai Metro project would be completed on schedule despite global crisis. However only 10 out of 29 metro stations of the red line opened on 9 September 2009.

Construction of the 18 stations on the red line and another 18 on the green line restarted on February 7, 2010, according to contractors, after a settlement was reached with a Japanese-led consortium over disputed payments of about $ 2 billion-$ 3 billion. Construction of all 29 metro stations on the red line was declared complete on April 28, 2010 by the acting chief of the RTA Rail Agency.

Seven more stations on the Dubai Metro Red Line opened on April 30, 2010. Ten new trains were pressed into service, giving a total of 22 trains in service when the stations opened. The seven stations are, Emirates Station, Airport Terminal 1 Station, Dubai Internet City (TECOM) Station, Al Karama Station, Emirates Towers Station, Marina Station and Ibn Battuta Station. In addition to this, a further 3 stations were opened on May 15, 2010; Al Quoz Station, GGICO Station and World Trade Center Station, whilst the remaining stations on the Red Line will be opened in October 2010. The RTA announced that work on all 18 stations on the 23-km long Green Line that runs around the Dubai Creek through Deira and Bur Dubai is anticipated to be complete by August 2011. On March 2010 the Dubai Metro chief resigned due to the construction delays.

Operation

The Dubai Metro is operated by Serco under contract to the Dubai Roads & Transport Authority. Before launch, Dubai Municipality Public Transport Department expected the metro to carry 1.2 million passengers on an average day, 27,000 passengers per hour for each line, and 355 million passengers per year once both lines are fully operational. It is planned provide transport for 12% of all trips in Dubai. After the first month of operation (on a limited network), the actual ridership was 1,740,578, which equates to under 60,000 passengers/day. After the opening of more stations in May 2010, ridership surged to 115,000 passengers/day and is estimated to reach 140,000/day by the end of June 2010.

One issue for the new system will be how to reliably and comfortably get riders to their final destination if it is not located at a metro station. The RTA has changed and added "feeder bus routes" which act as shuttle services to and from major locations in and around the station area. There are bus and taxi laybys constructed as well as drop off zones at each station for ease of passenger access. In addition 268 km of light rail lines are also planned, these will serve as feeders to the Dubai Metro. The Al Sufouh Tramway is one of the light rail plans.

Lines

When completed, Dubai Metro will have 70 kilometres (43 mi) of lines, and 47 stations (including nine underground stations). Two lines are under construction, and three more are planned. The Roads and Transport Authority's masterplan includes 320 km of metro lines up to 2020 to cater to the expected 3.3 million population of the city. There are plans for 268 km of light rail tracks to act as a feeder system for the Metro. The fate of this entire network – which would reportedly be divided into Yellow, Orange, Magenta and Black lines – is now dependent on an economic recovery and private investment.

Under construction

Green Line: 20 kilometres (12 mi) line with 22 stations from Festival City, through the city centre, Dubai International Airport Terminal 2 and the Airport Free Zone. This line was proposed to open in March 2010, however the Dubai RTA confirmed at the end of August 2009 that the Green Line will not open until June 2010, completing the first phase of the Dubai Metro. The line was originally slated at 17 km was increased by 5 km to 22.5 km. The RTA has announced further delays that now anticipate the project to be completed by August 2011. Proposed

Purple Line: 49 kilometres (30 mi) Dubai International Airport to Al Maktoum International Airport, along Al Khail Road. Construction commenced in March 2009 and be operational by 2012. It will have about eight stations on the route, three with check in facilities. However The Dubai Airports claimed that this was unfeasible as it did not pass through many localities. They however suggested opting for a "central terminal" similar to ones in the US where trains leave from inside the airport to the other airport with trains also leaving to the city. The RTA have taken this into consideration.

Blue Line: 47 kilometres (29 mi) Dubai International Airport to Al Maktoum International Airport, along Emirates Road.[24]. This was originally proposed for construction starting along with the Purple Line and completion in 2012. Due to the recession it was taken under reconsideration and the RTA have fixed a deadline of 2014 for completion of this line.

Yellow Line: Announced in April 2008[19]

Red Line Extension: 15.5 km and six new stations, terminating at the border with Abu Dhabi. No dates for completion announced.[25]

Green Line Extension: The line could be further extended by 11 km from Al Jaddaf to International City under the Green Line extension project.

Virtual Game/Tour

The software development company Olive Global has been contracted by the RTA to build a virtual simulation model of the Dubai Metro. This simulation permits the player to choose a character and either play a game where the layer attempts to get around the metro system as quickly as possible, or simply tour four metro stations; Jebel Ali Station (42) and Business Bay Station on the Red Line, and Al Nahda Station and Union Station on the Green Line. This virtual simulation is up and running on the RTA website

List of stations

Dubai Metro is composed of at-grade (G) elevated Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 (T1, T2 and T3, respectively) underground stations (U) and underground transfer station types (UT). Type 1 is the regular at-grade concourse station, Type 2 is a regular elevated concourse station, and Type 3 is an elevated special track station with an extra track to hold a non operational train. Underground transfer stations will be accommodating both the Red and Green lines for easy transfers.

Besides these differences, there are four themes used in the interiors of the stations: earth, water, fire and air. Earth stations have a tan-brown colour effects; water has blue-white colour effects; fire has orange-red colour effects; and the air has green colour effects.

Red Line Station

Green Line Station

Corporate branding

Officials are negotiating with international and local companies over naming rights for 23 stations on the two lines. This corporate branding is the first of its kind.

Trains

Japanese manufacturer Kinki Sharyo built a total of 87 five-car trains for the Red and Green lines. They are designed to carry 643 seated and standing passengers, and unusually for a mass transit system, the trains have three classes of accommodation: Gold Class, Women and Children class, and regular Silver Class (economy). The first train was delivered to Dubai in March 2008. The metro has driverless operation and uses third rail current collection. Trained wardens accompany passengers to help with emergencies.

Signaling

To permit fully-automated operation, Thales Rail Signalling Solutions is supplying its SelTrac IS communications-based train control and NetTrac central control technology. This is configured for a minimum headway of 90 sec. Maximum speed of the trains will be 90 km/h, giving a round-trip time of 2 h 23 min for the Red Line and 1 h 23 min for the Green Line.

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