10 quick facts about the Dubai Metro

10 quick facts about the Dubai Metro

The region’s first metro starts operations today. Here’s what you should know about it.

September 9, 2009 11:17 by Aarti Nagraj

1.The Dubai Metro is the world’s largest automated driverless train system, with more than 70km of magnetic tracks.

2.The Metro will be able to carry up to 27,000 passengers in each direction every hour. When fully functioning, it is projected to carry approximately 1.2 million passengers on an average day, and 355 million passengers per year. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) hopes that over 30 percent of the emirate’s population will use the metro.

3.One ticket costs between AED1.80 and AED5.80, and a full day ticket is priced at AED14. The RTA has stressed that people will not be allowed to eat or drink in the trains. They also said that pets are not allowed on the metro.

4.The RTA announced that it bought 518 buses from VDL, a Holland-based company, for AED1.9 billion to transport passengers to and from the Dubai Metro. The RTA also said that parking facilities at the metro stations will be free and that 20 pedestrian crossings will be installed on Sheikh Zayed Road to ease traffic for metro commuters.

5.The construction cost of Dubai Metro’s Red and Green Lines have gone up 75 percent from the previous estimate of AED16 billion to AED28 billion, the RTA announced recently. The body attributed the rise in cost to the addition of new stations and facilities. It is expecting the metro to generate up to AED17 billion within the next ten years.

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Tags: cost, drink, Dubai metro, food, parking, pets, ticket, Transport & Tourism