:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

ladies and gentleman, clap your hands!

dubai finally plans to invest into infrastructure. for me it has always been a big problem. once i was at the montgomerie golf course, it took me almost 3 hours to get to shindagha tunnel! can you believe that?

in my opinion something has to be done very very soon to relieve the traffic. especially from 6 till 10 in the evening it's like going through hell if you want to get to sharjah at this time!






Dubai will invest over Dh22 billion ($6 billion) in infrastructure related projects in the medium term, with $4.5 billion earmarked for the light rail transit (LRT) development.

Around $500 million will go for roads and bridges, $300 million for drainage and irrigation, and $700 million for general projects.

Dubai's existing road network stretches 10,000 lane kilometres on an investment of $2.5 billion. It is under continuous expansion and development with over 20 major new projects, including an eight-lane tunnel under the airport and a new 12-lane bridge across Dubai Creek.

The LRT system will stretch 70 kilometres with 55 stations. Construction will start in 2005 and the first phase and will be operational in 2010. The second phase will be completed in 2017.

Roads are monitored and managed through an automated traffic control centre. An intelligent transportation system, including a dynamic navigation system and variable sign messages, is under development and will be operational by December 2005.

"Dubai Municipality must stay abreast of this ongoing growth by providing necessary infrastructure and facilities and related services. Our annual budget exceeds $350 million, with approximately 90 per cent allocated to infrastructure development," said Mattar Al Tayer, assistant director-general.

He was addressing the opening session of the Dubai-Germany Economic Partnership Forum, which began in Munich yesterday.

Dubai's total investment in sewage, irrigation and drainage projects exceeds $1.5 billion. "To improve performance, we are building a new sewage treatment plant and undertaking more than 40 projects costing $300 million in the next five years."

Despite a desert climate, he said, Dubai enjoys a very high green area per capita ratio at 20.2 square metres per capita.

Still more is needed than this
this will just fix what problems exist i find it hard to belive they are ready for the huge influx over the next deacade
its going to get a lot worse before it get better

yeah, you are right! the metro will be finished in 2017. until this year, dubai will already have exploded. i mean, you can see traffic increasing from day to day!

and if all these people who work in jebel ali and live in sharjah will still drive all the way through downtown, then in i would say in 5 years it takes you half a day or something!

but i'm also annoyed about those people who drive through downtown. they could use emirates road, can't they??? last time i was in dubai, 3 weeks ago, i took emirates road and nobody was there. i just had to drive 25 minutes from montgomerie. but the way to hyatt regency (this is where my father lives this year), it doesn't matter if you go there via bur dubai or deira side, it was like hell.

so, although i've been to dubai for only seven times by now (first 4 times = normal holiday, last 3 times = visiting my father who now works in dubai) i can say that using emirates road is the first important step to relieve downtown traffic!!!

I know most dont know about it i take it to get from defence roundabout (where i work) to Wafi/Lancy Plaza or even world trade any thing to avoid SZR its crazy ! ANd no one is there ever ! Even at 6-7pm at night
You so right and it goes all the way behind with no traffic they need to diver traffic away from the coast to the empty space out there

i found some more information about the dubai metro (light rail system):

The inauguration of the extension of the Meteor, automatic metro in Paris, was held in December in the presence of a guest that Gilles de Robien made sure to greet during his speech: Nasser Saeed, director of Dubai’s department of routes and president of its metro project. The Minister of equipment, who just returned from the Emirates, had doubtlessly measured the interest of the future metro for French businesses. A project valued at 14 billion United Arab Emirates dirhams, or 3 billion euros. For now, as the call to tender has not yet been launched, they are in the preliminary stages. More precisely, at the engineering, attributed to Systra in spring 2003. the contract concerns project management, which Systra will carry out alone, with the Arep competition for the stations.
The challenge is to meet the needs of the growing population. Dubai, which counted 183,000 inhabitants in 1970, has today roughly 1.1 million. And the population should continue to grow at an annual rate of 6.4% to reach 3 million inhabitants in 2017. At the same time, the demand for short trips should triple. If the city of Dubai did nothing for its
public transport, traffic congestion would paralyse it, with automobile traffic exceeding road capacity by 30%. Already over the past ten years, the growth of automobile ownership has grown dramatically, at rate of over 10% annually. In parallel, the municipality has invested 1.3 billion euros in roads over the past 20 years. Public transport has also benefited from this road effort, with a 20% increase in bus usage in recent years. But the road solution has reached its limits. Also, according to an interview of Nasser Saeed published in The Gulf Today of 10 December, “We are putting in place a full urban transport plan for the next 100 years, in order to resolve the traffic problem for future generations.” In 2017, the year of maturity for the system, the most heavily used metro section will see more than 16,000 people per hour per direction during peak hours, the entire metro transporting 118,000 people, the entire fleet of buses transporting 130,000 people, public transport assuring 18.2% of urban movements.
While responding to a growing need, the metro will also be an instrument of prestige for a city that wants to develop tourism and business. Dubai will mark a point in the Middle East: the creation of a high-tech metro, entirely automatic, would be a first for the region…even if Riyad, interested in a similar project, could rapidly go the same route. Still for reasons of prestige, it is foreseen that the metro can attract another population than that of the buses today, essentially composed of Philippine or Pakistani immigrants who assure the development of the Emirate. Also, the Dubai metro will offer cars reserved for women or for families, as well as first class cars.
The Dubai project is an entirely automatic LRT (Light Rail Transit). Two lines are planned, red and green. The red line, more or less straight, will link in its maximal extension the port Jebel Ali to the airport free zone. According to the initial project, the line will go to Sharjah, the neighbouring Emirate where a good part of the immigrant day labourers who come to work in Dubai lodge. Dubai has finally decided to make an oblique line in the direction of the airport free zone. The green, in horseshoe shape, will serve the airport terminals and the entire business centre from one side of the Creek to the other, the sea arms penetrating into the heart of the city. The red and green lines, each passing under the Creek, will be connected at two stations in the most urban zone. One principal depot will be built in the middle of the red line.
The July 2003 preliminary study by Systra and the municipality of Dubai calls for the creation of an automatic metro with sliding platform doors, entirely air conditioned, with ticket sales based on a contact-free pass, the installation of which is currently being carried out in buses.
Four scenarios were envisaged for the system’s realisation. The costs are roughly the same, whatever the hypothesis, realisation in one full sweep or in diverse types of phases. According to three of the four scenarios, commercial service could begin in summer 2010. Of the 3 billion euros, civil engineering accounts for 1.18 billion euros, fixed equipment for 450 million, rolling stock for 645 million, nearly 800 million reserved being for “contingencies” and diverse costs, a precaution judged indispensable for avoiding bad surprises as long as the studies have not been carried out.
Operating costs have been pegged at approximately 160 million euros per year, for receipts evaluated at 238 million, or a rate of cost coverage by receipts of nearly 1.50. According to the preliminary study, the cost coverage for similar systems were: 0.80 for Glasgow, 1.10 for Paris, 1.20 for Lille, 1.30 for Tokyo, 1.48 for London and nearly 1.60 for Hong Kong.
It remains to be seen when the subject will be addressed in detail. According to Michel Plagnol, project head at Systra, “the technical competition at a systems level will be launched toward July, a pre-selection coming three to four months later. Then, an international call to tender will be launched around the month of March, 2005, to retain the consortium that will be entrusted with its realisation. This consortium will be responsible for civil engineering, the construction of the system with one of thation and maintenance for several years, and to propose a plan for financing.” Wree outfitters pre-selected and will probably also be committed to its operith, for deadline, the service debut in 2010.


http://en.webvdr.com/info_img/Dubai_4.gif

The red line will be 50 km long (45.3 in viaduct with 29 stations, and 4.7 underground with 6 stations). And the green line, 19.2 km long (5.8 in viaduct with 5 stations, and 13.4 underground with 17 stations), the tunnels being bored by tunnel boring machines.
The rolling stock will be composed of 99 5-car trainsets. The metros will be 75 metres long and 2.6 metres wide. Each car can carry 122 people (32 seated, 90 standing), the train can thus transport 610 people, some 4 people per square metre.
The first year, one train every four minutes is planned for circulation during rush hours on the red line and one every five minutes on the green line.
In 2017, the interval should be respectively
2 minutes 10 seconds and 3 minutes 35 seconds. Then it will improve to 1 minute 30 seconds on the red line and 2 minutes on the green line. The trains will circulate at a maximum speed of 80km per hour, the electric power supply will be assured by third rail.

i think that they should build undergrownd system subway? i dont know what its called. the weather is a reasnoble reason to build this

yes. subway is much cooler, but on the ground it's much nicer to go by train as dubai is a beautiful city.
and i mean, this train will have a nice appearance and design, so it doesn't deserve it to go underground all the way.
partially the train will have underground sections.

in nyc it's ok. these old subway trains are really ugly and remain in the underground.