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The driverless, fully-automated trains will offer the choice of luxurious first-class coach cars, and commuters will be able to wait for trains in air-conditioned comfort.
The government has spared no expense on the ambitious project, which has seen its costs rise by 75% above the original estimates to reach a projected $4.4bn by the time the second of the two-line metro system opens next summer.
The 52-kilometre Red Line, which will open to the public on September 10 from 6am, will run from Dubai Airport to Jebel Ali, but just 10 of the 29 stations on the route will be ready on opening day. Officials say the remaining stations will open over the coming months as surrounding developments reach completion. The 23-kilometre Green Line, which has 18 stations, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2010.
To encourage commuter use, the Dubai metro will be relatively inexpensive compared to rail networks in other cities, with the cost of travelling from one end of the Red Line to the other held at Dhs5.80.
Dubai officials are confident that the metro will help reduce traffic in the emirate, especially in some of the more densely populated areas of the city. Officials estimate the metro will carry 27,000 passengers per hour and 355 million passengers a year, once both lines are fully operational.
The emirate's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) also said that the introduction of the metro as a transportation system would lower the financial costs that result from the daily congestion on Dubai roads, which is estimated at over $1bn a year.
Short-term impact
While it is true that traffic is still a problem in a few high density areas, it is not nearly as bad as it was a few years ago when the plans for the metro were drawn up. In the past six to 12 months Dubai's roads have improved noticeably as the population has shrunk due to the wave of layoffs that resulted from the financial crisis.
The easing of the traffic problem, along with the relatively few number of stations that will be opening and the challenges involved in connecting people from their homes to the metro stations, are among the reasons why some experts think the impact of the metro will be relatively minor, at least in the short term.
'It's really a wait and see to what level of impact the metro will have,' says Matt Green, associate director of research and consultancy at CB Richard Ellis Middle East. 'At the beginning it will be minimal, but its usefulness to Dubai will increase when more stations are up and running and connectivity to metro stations is improved.'
He believes that even though there has been a lot of hype about the rollout of the new rail system, it will take time for people to make the shift to using the metro as a regular part of their lives. 'For a long time people will be sticking to driving a car,' he told AME Info. 'I don't think we are going to see suddenly a huge impact. It will be more gradual.'
According to Green, businesses in areas such as Bur Dubai, which continue to have nightmarish traffic problems, will benefit from having a metro station. Developers or investors looking to build or purchase buildings in the region may also look more closely at Dubai and its improved infrastructure, with their eye on locations near the stations.
'It's a good bit of PR for Dubai during a time when things are difficult, and having that kind of investment in your infrastructure is always going to help attract outside investors who are looking at the Dubai market,' he said.
Jeff Florian, Senior Reporter
