RTA 'virtual tour' of Dubai Metro

According to Gulf News the RTA has launched a virtual-reality-portal-metro-tour-website.

You can visit the portal/site directly here: http://www.rta.ae/virtualtransport

It is so virtual that you can actually choose your sex and race:

The simulation/game sets timed targets for how fast you can purchase a ticket:

Here's a video of some of the tour:

Malls to charge for parking in Dubai

"Two malls in Dubai have revealed their plan to introduce charges for people that leave their vehicles in the car parks for more than three hours.

The parking management system that is to be introduced at the Mall of the Emirates and Deira City Centre is an attempt to put off drivers who may want to leave their cars in the mall car parks then catch the Metro to another destination.

On weekdays the first three hours are free, with four at weekends. On weekdays each extra hour will be charged at Dh20 while at weekends the additional first and second hours will be charged at Dh40 and Dh60 respectively. An additional hour of free parking is available for those watching films at the malls’ cinemas.

The new system will have a trial run from Aug 9 with the introduction of entry and exit barriers, ticket collection points and instructions."

More here: Malls confirm car parking charges (The National)

The trains have arrived...

The first of the Metro trains have arrived - here's what they look like...

Dubai Metro faces delays

Found in last week's Middle East Economic Digest, dated 19-25 October 2007. The on-line version is available on a subscription-only basis, so I've typed it in here as an article of general interest.

Contractors ask for more time to complete urban rail network

The $4,600 million project to build the red and green lines on the Dubai Metro scheme could be facing delays of up to one year after contractors on the scheme indicated to the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) that they need more time to complete work on the project.

According to several senior sources on the scheme, the JT Metro joint venture executing the civil engineering and construction works is seeking an extension to complete the project. “The amount of time being discussed is changing, but it is several hundred days,” says a consultant working on the project.

Significant changes in the design of the system are understood to be the reason for discussion. The client, the RTA, has revised the design of the project since the contract was awarded to the Dubai Urban Rail Link (Durl) consortium in 2005, and the contractors are now seeking more time to accommodate these changes.

“Almost everything has changed except the tunnel diameters and the viaducts,” says a source on the project. “It is very different to the specifications provided in the tender documents.”

However, it is unclear whether an extension will be granted by the RTA. The project is one of the most critical in Dubai as it is required to alleviate the chronic congestion currently experienced on the emirate’s roads.

“The RTA is adamant that the red line will open on 9 September 2009,” says the source. “So the consortium may be compensated to get it finished on time.”

The RTA denies that there has been a request for more time to complete the project. “The RTA is not aware of any such request,” says a spokeswoman.

The Metro Once Again.

Have anyone been to Bur Dubai recently?
The area around the Ramada signal has become a labyrinth. I am sure that those responsible for the construction of the underground Metro station there are doing their best to deal with the huge magnitude of pedestrian movement, at the same time sticking to their schedules.

Residents of that area are suffering. The RTA has urged people earlier to 'bear with them'. People are bearing (do they have a choice anyway?). Come what might, works on the Metro has to go on. This short term suffering will (inshallah) pay off once the Metro is ready to rock n' roll.

I have few suggestions to ease off the 'inconveniences'. Some of them might have been considered by the experts before….but let me put them on to you anyway:

- 10 feet wide unfettered pedestrian walkways in all directions should be
maintained, instead of the currently crammed 3 feet walkways.
- Provide
alternative parking lots to compensate for the ones that have been taken by the
porta cabins and the 4 silos of the patching plant (don't ask me where the
alternatives lots could be, I have no idea)…
- If the York and the Regal
Palace hotels are witnessing a drop in the occupancy rates because of these
works, the extra rooms could be used for lodging the Metro construction staff
(and maybe the labor?)

Finally, a request to create a section on this board, call it 'The Metro Watch' for instance, where people can share their stories and their inputs about the subject. The link could also be put forward to the RTA website, which apart from the FAQ section, doesn't have a public forum. This section can function as one…..

Thanks.

(P.S.: there used to be a live camera feed of the Ramada interesection on the DM website. It's no longer there)

Tales From the Metro

When and where was the last time you rode in a metro--if ever? Might be nice for some of us to share our experiences as we dream of what the Metro will be like in Dubai.

I believe my last time was in Los Angeles in 2005. It had some of the typically American idiosyncrasies. One could take it from the LA international airport, but it was by design rather less than convenient.

You had to take a bus from the terminal a mile or two away and wait in what seemed like a derelict, dangerous part of town for the train to arrive. Once on the train you had to contend with the occasional drunk and rowdy teenagers. And of course there was no direct run to the center of the business district. One had to get off and change to another train in an even more dangerous looking neighborhood than the first.

Let's hope Dubai's system will be a lot more convenient and appealing.

To feel more at ease I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler, who seemed like a safer bet to approach. I was the Japanese-speaking American resident of the UAE trying to make friends with an English-speaking Japanese resident of Boston, Mass. I remarked that at least the station we were waiting at had cop cars around it. She said they were there because it was an especially high crime area. On my return to the airport later in the day, the cop cars had been joined by a police helicopter. Not the most comfortable entrance and exit in and out of LA.