An extension of the Dubai Metro that will link the city with the Expo 2020 site will open to passengers from January 1, 2021.
Route 2020 will initially cover four stations: Jebel Ali, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens and Al Furjan – all large residential communities currently only accessed by bus or private car.
The remaining three stations – Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai Investment Park and 2020 Expo, will open later next year.
Mattar Al Tayer, director general of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said about 270,000 people live in the areas served by the new stations.
Mattar Al Tayer: Route 2020, the extension of the Dubai Metro line from Jabal Ali Station to Expo 2020 station, would start commercial operation on 01/01/2021. https://t.co/FIDjMTYqdE pic.twitter.com/2sLW6wCLKK — Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) December 19, 2020
The new 15km section will allow trains to carry tens of thousands of visitors to the Expo site when it opens in October, 2021. The World Fair was originally due to be held in October 2020 but was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Organizers aim to attract millions of people from across the globe during the event’s six-month run.
The extension to the Red Line cost in the region of Dh11 billion ($3bn) – marking a massive investment in public transport in Dubai.
The original project built between 2005 and 2009 cost about Dh28 billion ($7.8bn).
There will be six trains per hour serving Jebel Ali, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens and Al Furjan and the waiting time between each train will be 10 minutes.
In total, 19 buses will serve the four stations, connecting metro passengers with other areas.
The service will run between 5am to midnight Saturday to Wednesday, 5am to 1am on Thursday and 10am to 1am on Friday.
The route has the capacity to accommodate 46,000 passengers per hour in both directions.
Transport bosses predict the route will serve 125,000 passengers a day in 2021, rising to 275,000 passengers a day by 2030.
Source: TheNationalNews.com