New Website and New Blog

Please note that I have rebuilt the Dubai Metro website and it also now incorporates this blog and so this will be the last post at this location. Please check it out here:

Dubai Metro Website

Dubai Metro Blog

Dubai Transport Zones Increase From 5 to 7

In light of the opening of the green line of the Dubai Metro in the coming weeks, the zoning of public transport in Dubai has been changed to incorporate more zones. Currently there are 5 zones covering all the public transport areas but this will be increased to 7 with effect from 12 August 2011.

The main changes are in and around the central business districts and will impact the following stations:

• Khalid bin al Waleed (Burjuman)
• Karama
• Jaffilia
• World Trade Center
• Emirates Towers
• Financial Centre
• Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall
• Business Bay

If you use any of these stations you may be affected by a slight increase in your fare as you may now be travelling between more zones. These stations were previously in Zone 5, which has now been split into two zones and becomes zones 5 and 6.

I have tried to incorporate the new metro zones in the attached metro map but as usual it is quite difficult to get the precise information about the new zones from the RTA website as they have not posted it yet so I have used a few sources to build this map and hope it is correct.

Dubai Metro Ramadan Station Timings Extended

As has become customary in the last few years since the Dubai Metro opened, the opening hours of the stations will be extended during the duration of Ramadan. The extended opening hours for the metro are as follows:

Saturday to Wednesday
5.50am until Midnight

Thursday
5.50am until 1am

Friday
1pm until 1am

Although these are the timings for the station openings, if you are looking to get the last train back from one end of the Red line to the other then you need to watch for the time of the last train. As it takes approximately 1 hour to get from one end to the other you will need to get to the station early enough to get the last train to where you are travelling. Feeder buses are running until 1am too.

In my opinion these timings are still much earlier than what is required by the general public and do not reflect similar timings in other parts of the world where the last trains go much later, but the RTA has not changed it's stance on this since opening so it seems that this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Green Line Still Set to Open Early September

So Mattar al Tayer, chairman of the RTA, has confirmed that the Dubai Metro green line is still on schedule to open in early September, possibly at the start of the Eid al Fitr holiday. A fixed date has not been given as work is still ongoing and no doubt we will hear nearer the time when it will open and which stations.

Check the map below for the green line stations.

Purple Line Still Part of the Plans for Dubai Metro

So it seems that the Dubai metro purple line is still part of the plans for the metro in the long term. The purple line was in the master plans at the beginning but was put on hold when the financial crisis hit. But Matthar al Tayer is quoted as saying that the purple line is still in the plans for the next 5-10 years.

The purple line was due to run from Dubai International Airport to Maktoum International Airport along the route of the Al Khail Road. With the airport being delayed it was inevitable that the purple line would also be delayed but hopefully recent slow progress will continue to bring it back into play.

Dubai Metro Map

So as the green line of the Dubai Metro is due to open in September, I have created a new Dubai Metro map that includes all of the stations on the red and green lines. While 2 stations are yet to open on the red line, there are also 2 stations that will not open with the green line opening as the areas around them are not completely developed, even though the stations themselves are actually ready (Creek & Jadaf).

So the map shows just the names of the stations on each line including which are not yet open. Check it out on my Dubai Metro website or else open the image in this post.  

Metro Newspaper Launched

So a new newspaper called 'Read' has come out today which is aimed at the Dubai Metro passengers on the red line. The weekly paper, which will be issued every Sunday is billed as an infotainment title with information about events and happenings close to the Dubai Metro station plus information on celebrity visitors to Dubai, how the Metro system works and also movie listings.

Many worldwide metro or underground systems have a similar paper that is intended for those people who travel on public transport including the 'Metro' newspaper, a free sheet, which is available to pick up for users of the London Underground. Whether the 'Read' newspaper will be as successful as that is yet to be seen, but indeed they have a slightly different slant right now as the 'Metro' is more news based and issued daily.

80,000 copies of Read magazine will be issued each Sunday and it is available in 27 stations on the Red Line.

Did you pick up a copy of Read today? If so what did you think about it?