The United Arab Emirates, one of the world's great oil capitals, is struggling with horrific traffic congestion in its largest city, Dubai. The problem has grown so bad it's costing the city, and its 1.44 million residents $1.25 billion a year in lost productivity. That's a lot of money even for an oil-rich state, which is why the country is pumping huge amounts of cash into a sweet rapid transit system.
There are more cars in Dubai than in New York or London, and if the trend continues, the city will have 5.3 million automobiles by 2020. That's made building an efficient rapid transit system an absolute necessity as Dubai pulls itself into the twentieth century.
The initial phase of the project will cost $4.2 billion and consist two lines covering about 44 miles of track. The first line, the Red Line, will open in September 2009, and the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority has started testing automated trains that reportedly will be the fastest in the world.
The system will carry 200 million passengers a year, about 547,000 passengers each day. Officials hope to have almost 200 miles of subway lines built by
2020, at which point it would be one of the largest automated subway systems in the world.
City leaders hope the system will spur economic development as real estate values grow, bringing urban revitalization to the rail corridors. The system also will add hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs. It is "the first railway system of this kind being introduced in the region," the agency says, "hence there is a lot of excitement and support for it."
Photo by Flickr user DubaiFM.
