Dubai Tram on track for November opening

More than 90 per cent of the construction work and testing on the Dubai Tram has been achieved, putting the project well on schedule for its November opening this year.
The entire Dubai Tram project has now hit a 93 per cent completion rate, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), announced on Saturday after a tour of the project. The announcement was made just five months from the Dubai Tram's expected opening date.
Al Tayer toured the depot, stations, and footbridges, along with Abdullah Yousuf Al Ali, acting CEO of the Rail Agency at RTA, other officials and the project contractor.
Al Tayer also inspected the depot which has 11 environment-friendly buildings and a capacity to accommodate 25 trains. He revealed that the depot has exceeded 92 per cent completion rate and said all works in this maintenance and storage facility will be completed by August.
The facility includes a control centre for the rail operations, which verifies the safety of doors, brakes and motors of each train, in addition to air-conditioners along with other sophisticated ancillary electronic systems, maintenance workshops and washing and cleaning workshops.
Al Tayer also said about 91 per cent of the work on Dubai Tram's stations has been completed.
The third phase of the Dubai Tram's test runs started at Al Sufouh station on June 17. Once completed, it will connect areas in new Dubai, which is a hub of big residential, commercial and tourism projects such as Dubai Marina, Media City, Internet City, Knowledge Village and a number of luxury hotels.
The Dubai Tram will also be aligned with the Dubai Metro and the Palm Jumeirah Monorail to encourage more commuters to use public transport as part of Dubai's integrated Mass Transit system. The two networks will connect through footbridges at both the stations for a smooth and seamless interchange of passengers.
The Dubai Tram will run for 20 hours daily between 5am and 1am. A fleet of 11 trams will operate in phase one of the project that will cover 10.6km from Al Sufouh to Dubai Marina.
The trams will operate at six-minute intervals during peak hours and eight to 10 minutes during non-peak hours.
The trams will make a round trip in 39 minutes, moving at an average commercial speed of 21.44km/h and achieving a maximum speed of 50km/h. Each 44-metre-long tram can accommodate 370 passengers at a time.