Dubai Metro first in the Arabia, confirms city status
Posted on 09 September 2009 with no comments from readers
If Dubai was looking for a symbol to confirm its status as the commercial and financial capital of the Gulf States then the new metro is it, and the very first in this region.
Soon to follow will be the world’s tallest building, the 818-metre high Burj Dubai, possibly on National Day, December 2nd. This will surely be the crowning glory for Dubai.
Economic slump
But what a shame that the tallest building syndrome has struck again in Dubai with the construction of this project coinciding with the global financial crisis, and a spectacular local economic slump that brought property prices down 50 per cent and the stock market by 80 per cent.
You could also speak of the curse of the metro. Bangkok opened its mass transit system a year after the Asian Financial Crisis, and as in Dubai by then the traffic chaos it was supposed to correct had largely dissipated.
However, long-term investment in the infrastructure of a city is always to be applauded, even if it needs a boom to pay for it, and booms are always and inevitably followed by busts.
The Dubai Metro is opening on time but way ahead of budget. It has the world’s longest automated driverless train running for 75 kilometres. But the cost is estimated to be $7.5 billion, almost twice the original budget when the project started on site four years ago.
The carriages are top specification with air-conditioning, wireless Internet and mobile phone reception. There is a gold class for executives and a separate compartment for women and children.
Low fares
Its standard fare will be amongst the lowest in the world and one eighth the cost of a ride on the crowded London underground, the first metro in the world.
However, the biggest impact of the Dubai Metro will be to relive congestion at peak periods and make commuting easy for thousands who have faced nightmarish car journeys in the past. This ought to be attractive to financial institutions and multinationals considering the relocation of staff to tax-free Dubai.
Next up for a metro will be Abu Dhabi but surely Doha can not be far behind in jumping on this particular bandwagon. But as usual Dubai has got there first and it will be years before any other Arabian city has a metro.
no Comments posted by readers:
Surely Cairo is an Arabian city?
Ed Note: actually Cairo is a North African city or Middle East city but not Arabian – a country needs to be on the Arabian peninsula to be Arabian, and this generally refers to the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries plus Yemen (GCC = Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman).
Suggest using either GCC or Arabian Peninsula instead and to avoid confusion.
For us Middle Easterners, Arabia, Arab, Middle East… refers to any nation thats Arabic is the official language. That spans from Iraq all the way to Morocco..