7 Days
Dubai, Apr 30: The demise of the motorcar in Dubai took another step closer to becoming reality yesterday following the announcement of a dhs4 billion tram service for the emirate.
The ambitious Al Safooh Tram project follows hot on the heels of other new modes of public transport aimed at making the city ‘greener’ and less reliant on cars, including the Dubai Metro, water taxis, a fleet of 2,500 buses and planned cycle lanes. Due for completion in April 2011, the tram system will stretch 14 kilometres along Al Safooh Road, linking Madinat Jumeirah and Mall of the Emirates with Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence.
It will operate for 20 hours each day, calling at 19 stations in business and residential areas. Plans for the network were unveiled yesterday by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), which estimates that around 200,000 people will use the 25 trams every day. Mattar Al Tayer, executive director of the RTA, said: “The tram will be just one of the solutions that contributes to easing congestion on Dubai’s roads. Al Safooh is a commercial and tourism hub and so therefore one of the most important areas in Dubai, which is why the government has chosen it as a priority.”
Increasing toll and parking charges, as well as higher vehicle registration fees, are to be implemented by the authority, to encourage more people onto public transport - such as the Al Safooh Tram - and off the city’s infamously congested roads. The RTA’s director of rail planning, Abdul Redha Abu al Hassan, previously told the media: “There are two methods of encouraging people to stop using the car and travel by public transport instead. One is to provide a luxurious and safe environment for mass transit systems and the other is to force them by increasing the cost of driving. To pay all the [Salik] fees it will end up that they have no money left in their pay packets, so it will be far easier and cheaper to use mass transit public transport.”
`Tram would be another reason for people not to make unnecessary car journeys. The authorities have to do something because eventually the rising cost of fuel will mean we won’t be able to afford to run cars as often as we do' - a spokesperson said.