Conrad Dubai, 21 October 2014. The MEED MENA Rail & Metro Summit was told this morning that the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) is preparing to accommodate up to 1m passengers on New Year’s Eve.
About 700,000 people used the Metro, which was free of charge for the evening, on New Year’s Eve 2013, the summit was told by RTA deputy director of rail operations and operations manager Hassan al-Mutawa.
Al-Muttawa said that the Metro had 610,000 passengers on 2 October, a record for the system which started operating in September 2009. He said that the RTA is dealing with soaring demand by reducing headway times to 90 seconds at peak times. It is developing measures to increase the speed at which people pass through popular stations.
Al-Muttawa also said that the RTA plans to place orders for additional trains.
Other plans include developing a five-tower complex at Union Square Station. Al-Muttawa said the RTA is considering financing options for the project. It is also planning to transform Dubai Metro stations into art museums.
The Dubai Metro, the world’s longest, fully automatic driverless Metro, has 74.6 kilometres of track and 457 stations.
Plans include extending Red Line to the Al-Maktoum International Airport and the World Expo 2022 site in the south and to Mirdif City Centre in the north. The Green Line plan calls for it to be extended to from Jadaf to International City.
Once these extensions are complete, the Dubai Metro will be 128 kilometres long and have 82 stations.
The Strategic Partners in the MEED MENA Rail & Metro Summit are Fluor and Siemens. Gold sponsors are ZTE and Bechtel. Associate Sponsor is Louis Berger. Lunch Sponsor is Vossloh Middle East. Bronze Sponsors are Autodesk and Thales. Conference Sponsors are CSR, Arabian Railway Company, Drake & Scull and Hill International. Networking sponsor is Parsons.