Dubai Metro launches tonight

After suffering through four years of disruption and dislocation caused by rail construction, Dubai?s residents today finally get to welcome the Metro, which many hope will make the city far more user-friendly.

Launch formalities begin at 7.45 tonight, when VIPs gather in the Galleria of the Mall of the Emirates before boarding the first train and the Metro?s Red Line is declared open by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) also has high expectations. Speaking on Dubai TV last night, Mattar al Tayer, the board chairman and executive director of the RTA, said the authority expects the Metro to break even within seven years.

The RTA also expects a payoff from the Metro in better traffic conditions. Congestion costs the Dubai economy Dh5.2bn (US$1.4 bn) per year because of lost time and accidents, Mr al Tayer said, noting that Dubai today has nearly three times the number of registered vehicles as it had when the Metro project began in 2005.

Yesterday, as people began to absorb the idea that the end of the project really was in sight, some began to make plans to let the train take the strain out of their daily journeys.

?It will be great, believe me,? said Abdul Sabbah, 32, a Jordanian who commutes by car to work in Media City from his home next to Khalid bin Al Waleed Station (formerly called the Burjuman Station) in Bur Dubai. ?I?ll take it from my home in Bur Dubai to work. Why not? I can?t find parking anywhere anymore.?
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