RTA opens 3 metro stations on Saturday, Al Tayer: Stations to be opened include GGICO, World Trade Center, and Nour Islamic Bank stations

RTA opens 3 metro stations on Saturday

Al Tayer: Stations to be opened include GGICO, World Trade Center, and Nour Islamic Bank stations

14 Bus feeder bus deployed to link the new stations with the neighbourhood


Roads & Transport Authority – Mohammed Al Munji:
H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), announced that 3 metro stations on the Red Line of Dubai Metro will be opened coming Saturday, as the contracting consortium has completed all construction works in the metro stations on the Red Line of Dubai Metro. The stations to be opened on Saturday are GGICO station, World Trade Center station, and Noor Islamic Bank station. The remaining eight stations on the Red Line will be opened over the next remaining months of 2010.

Al Tayer continued: “The new stations, which are located at busy locations with very high population density, are GGICO; which serves a large number of schools in the locality of Al Garhoud as well as various residential & commercial locations. The World Trade Center station serves mainly the visitors and participants in conferences, conventions and various events hosted by the Dubai World Trade Center throughout the year; whose number is estimated as 200,000 persons p.a., besides serving the hotels, as well as residential & office towers in the neighbourhood. The station will contribute to facilitating the transit from and to events & venues, whether at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center or Dubai Airport Expo Center, and linking up different hotels, malls and key spots in the Central Business District of the city.

“Located at Al Qouz, Noor Islamic Bank station is one the stations believed to prove very popular with high ridership as it is situated in a highly populous area, with various trading & industrial activities around.

“RTA observed the highest global safety standards during the construction of Dubai Metro, paying full attention to the safety of the metro commuters, systems & installations, and verifying the readiness of all operational systems of the trains & stations and testing them in phases. For this end, RTA sought the services of world-class surveyors to assess the safety standards in different phases of the project, used state-of-the-art rail technology, and provided the best means of comfort and entertainment to passengers” added Al Tayer.

RTA Chairman of the Board and Executive Director confirmed that the new stations are ready to receive passengers, adding that 20 trains will be operated during peak time and 15 trains during off-peak time and the service will operate at a six minutes frequency (headway) during peak hours and eight minutes frequency during off-peak hours.
Al Tayer also said: “Public Transport Agency has trained bus drivers on the new bus routes to feed the metro stations to be opened, and 14 feeder buses have been deployed to link the metro stations with the neighbourhood of the stations offering service at 13-20 minutes frequency. Accordingly the number of feeder buses of the metro stations reaches 152 buses. Since the launch of the metro service on 09/09/09 till the end of last April, theses buses have lifted 4.5 million passengers.

“The Consortium constructing Dubai Metro has put the final touches of the stations; which included the finishing works of floors, installation & operation of escalators & lifts, internal lighting, fittings for the use of special needs persons such as the tactile floor that guides optically-impaired commuters to their destinations, and audio-visual announcement systems. Due attention has also been given to the finishing works of walls and aesthetic elements of all stations. The interior design of stations has been inspired by their historical implications and themed after the four elements of nature: Water, Air, Fire and Earth. Works also completed in pedestrian footbridges linking the metro stations with both sides of the road. These elevated walkways are air-conditioned and offer a wide space for the movement of the public crossing between the two sides of Sheikh Zayed Road, and have been fitted with travelators and feature top quality finishing in a way that brings about a revolution in the link between pedestrians and the city, thus contributing to minimizing the reliance on private vehicles. Arrangements have also been made for allocating parking spaces for buses and taxis at each station as well as the required directional signage and others.

Al Tayer added: “Serco Co, which is responsible for the Dubai Metro operation, has also finalized all trial technical testing of the metro operations, including testing the communication system, auto operation systems, power feed, air-conditioning, onboard electromechanical systems, signalling & lighting system and integration & coordination with various subsystems and components. The operator has also finalized the training of front-end employees deployed at stations on various systems who have already joined up their duties in different locations several days ago following the completion of intensive training courses in the fields of customer service, implementation of rules and regulations introduced by the RTA for safeguarding the project facilities, and enforcement of the law against offenders.

Photo captions:
- Mattar Al Tayer
- Stations ready to receive passengers