Dubai: a three-billion euro metro

The inauguration of the extension of the Meteor, automatic metro in Paris, was held in December in the presence of a guest that Gilles de Robien made sure to greet during his speech: Nasser Saeed, director of Dubai’s department of routes and president of its metro project. The Minister of equipment, who just returned from the Emirates, had doubtlessly measured the interest of the future metro for French businesses. A project valued at 14 billion United Arab Emirates dirhams, or 3 billion euros. For now, as the call to tender has not yet been launched, they are in the preliminary stages. More precisely, at the engineering, attributed to Systra in spring 2003. the contract concerns project management, which Systra will carry out alone, with the Arep competition for the stations.
The challenge is to meet the needs of the growing population. Dubai, which counted 183,000 inhabitants in 1970, has today roughly 1.1 million. And the population should continue to grow at an annual rate of 6.4% to reach 3 million inhabitants in 2017. At the same time, the demand for short trips should triple. If the city of Dubai did nothing for its
public transport, traffic congestion would paralyse it, with automobile traffic exceeding road capacity by 30%. Already over the past ten years, the growth of automobile ownership has grown dramatically, at rate of over 10% annually. In parallel, the municipality has invested 1.3 billion euros in roads over the past 20 years. Public transport has also benefited from this road effort, with a 20% increase in bus usage in recent years. But the road solution has reached its limits. Also, according to an interview of Nasser Saeed published in The Gulf Today of 10 December, “We are putting in place a full urban transport plan for the next 100 years, in order to resolve the traffic problem for future generations.” In 2017, the year of maturity for the system, the most heavily used metro section will see more than 16,000 people per hour per direction during peak hours, the entire metro transporting 118,000 people, the entire fleet of buses transporting 130,000 people, public transport assuring 18.2% of urban movements.
While responding to a growing need, the metro will also be an instrument of prestige for a city that wants to develop tourism and business. Dubai will mark a point in the Middle East: the creation of a high-tech metro, entirely automatic, would be a first for the region…even if Riyad, interested in a similar project, could rapidly go the same route. Still for reasons of prestige, it is foreseen that the metro can attract another population than that of the buses today, essentially composed of Philippine or Pakistani immigrants who assure the development of the Emirate. Also, the Dubai metro will offer cars reserved for women or for families, as well as first class cars.
The Dubai project is an entirely automatic LRT (Light Rail Transit). Two lines are planned, red and green. The red line, more or less straight, will link in its maximal extension the port Jebel Ali to the airport free zone. According to the initial project, the line will go to Sharjah, the neighbouring Emirate where a good part of the immigrant day labourers who come to work in Dubai lodge. Dubai has finally decided to make an oblique line in the direction of the airport free zone. The green, in horseshoe shape, will serve the airport terminals and the entire business centre from one side of the Creek to the other, the sea arms penetrating into the heart of the city. The red and green lines, each passing under the Creek, will be connected at two stations in the most urban zone. One principal depot will be built in the middle of the red line.
The July 2003 preliminary study by Systra and the municipality of Dubai calls for the creation of an automatic metro with sliding platform doors, entirely air conditioned, with ticket sales based on a contact-free pass, the installation of which is currently being carried out in buses.
Four scenarios were envisaged for the system’s realisation. The costs are roughly the same, whatever the hypothesis, realisation in one full sweep or in diverse types of phases. According to three of the four scenarios, commercial service could begin in summer 2010. Of the 3 billion euros, civil engineering accounts for 1.18 billion euros, fixed equipment for 450 million, rolling stock for 645 million, nearly 800 million reserved being for “contingencies” and diverse costs, a precaution judged indispensable for avoiding bad surprises as long as the studies have not been carried out.
Operating costs have been pegged at approximately 160 million euros per year, for receipts evaluated at 238 million, or a rate of cost coverage by receipts of nearly 1.50. According to the preliminary study, the cost coverage for similar systems were: 0.80 for Glasgow, 1.10 for Paris, 1.20 for Lille, 1.30 for Tokyo, 1.48 for London and nearly 1.60 for Hong Kong.
It remains to be seen when the subject will be addressed in detail. According to Michel Plagnol, project head at Systra, “the technical competition at a systems level will be launched toward July, a pre-selection coming three to four months later. Then, an international call to tender will be launched around the month of March, 2005, to retain the consortium that will be entrusted with its realisation. This consortium will be responsible for civil engineering, the construction of the system with one of thation and maintenance for several years, and to propose a plan for financing.” Wree outfitters pre-selected and will probably also be committed to its operith, for deadline, the service debut in 2010.
François Dumont.

The red line will be 50 km long (45.3 in viaduct with 29 stations, and 4.7 underground with 6 stations). And the green line, 19.2 km long (5.8 in viaduct with 5 stations, and 13.4 underground with 17 stations), the tunnels being bored by tunnel boring machines.
The rolling stock will be composed of 99 5-car trainsets. The metros will be 75 metres long and 2.6 metres wide. Each car can carry 122 people (32 seated, 90 standing), the train can thus transport 610 people, some 4 people per square metre.
The first year, one train every four minutes is planned for circulation during rush hours on the red line and one every five minutes on the green line.
In 2017, the interval should be respectively
2 minutes 10 seconds and 3 minutes 35 seconds. Then it will improve to 1 minute 30 seconds on the red line and 2 minutes on the green line. The trains will circulate at a maximum speed of 80km per hour, the electric power supply will be assured by third rail.