| Kippreport.com

Dubai Metro amongst the safest in the world because Dubai Metro Chief says so…

May 27, 2012 6:11 by Eva Fernandes

Kipp’s a fan of the metro—well as much of a fan as anyone who enjoys being stepped on, jabbed in the ribs and shoved from side to side. And still we can’t help but chuckle at the somewhat reductive comments of the director of the Roads and Transport Authority Mattar Al Tayer on a recent tour of the Control Centre and Trains Maintenance and Cleaning Workshop in the Jebel Ali Depot. Tayer said the metro was ‘excellent when measured by the standards of modern trains’ faults worldwide’ and that ‘Dubai Metro has a fault rate of one single fault per four million kilometers and one fault in one metro car every 800,000km, placing it amongst the highest safety standards for modern trains in the world.’

Of course, given that the first metro, the London underground opened its doors to the public way back in 1863, Kipp hopes Al Tayer can see how comparing the Dubai metro’s faults to other much older metros in the world is just a tad unfair.

Sure the Dubai Metro isn’t the youngest metro in the world, it opened way back in 2009-but it has had a few hiccups since its inception…including the time a girl in a wheel chair was stuck in the special elevator used for the specially-abled at the Nakheel metro station. And because Kipp takes the metro on a regular basis-we also can’t help but recall the various instances when the metro conked off during rush hour for no explainable reason and resulting in some typical Dubai-style chaos. Nonetheless, three cheers for having the self-proclaimed ‘safest metro in the world.’