Metro Dubai, UAE

DUBAI — Coffee... croissant... and the 6am Metro. In a schedule set months before launch, residents took a detour from daily routes to catch the first train out of any of the 10 Metro stations that opened on Wednesday, living a moment that will be fondly narrated for many years to come.

As the first train pulled into the Al Rashidiya station, the security guards gave way to anxious commuters who made a dash for the ticket counters and then scurried to platform one.
UAE nationals had a streak of pride in their talk and expatriates a spring in their walk — save the occasional frustration at the ticket counters and the confusion over destinations caused by incorrect announcements.

But minor glitches aside, the first journey was a joy ride for all.

One to fly in the skies, Walid Al Awadhi said he took a day off from his job as a pilot to ride on the first train. ‘It feels good to be here,’ said Al Awadhi of Emirates Airline. ‘Very soon the Metro will achieve all that it has promised. If I had to compare the Dubai Metro with that of other countries, I would have to say that the price, the architecture and design is far superior.’
As the sliding doors opened, commuters were greeted with an electronic announcement and smiling attendants asked passengers to take a seat. A sudden jolt marked the beginning of a ride to remember. As the train moved in and out of underground stations and cruised over elevated tracks, familiar skyscrapers now looked larger than life and the landscape, according to many, ‘simply breathtaking’.
Halting for a few seconds at every station, not many alighted: most commuters wanted to experience the full stretch of the Red Line.
Dhiren Khiara’s of the Dubai International Academy lunged his backpack onto the train from Khalid Bin Al Waleed station.

Finally,’ he said, ‘I will no longer have to rely on the schoolbus for pick-up and drop-offs.’ A bus fee of Dh4,000 per year will be eliminated — replaced by the modest cost of the Nol
silver card.

‘I’ve worked it out and it is much cheaper,’ he said. ‘Also, often stay-backs in school mean I need to ask my parents to pick me up.’ With the Metro, Dhiren will hail a feeder bus from a stop near his school to the Mall of the Emirates station and catch a train to Khalid Bin Al Waleed station, his initial boarding point.

Though the day began with eerie silence at mid-stations, commuters with the intention of reaching the workplace filled the compartments at peak hours. Conversations filled the air, as strangers became friends and business cards were exchanged.
‘You get to meet so many people, find out about so many things,’ said Shabana Hashim, who had just struck a conversation on the various metro systems world over with co-passenger Benjamin from Al Jafiliya station.
‘There is no driving stress and you can read a book, listen to music or work during the journey.’
Even a minor breakdown could not dent the enthusiasm of Metro users
on Thursday.
‘The train broke down between Al Nakheel Harbour Station and Mall of the Emirates Station today morning but engineers fixed the problem,’ said an RTA official, adding that they were small issues and could be expected on the first day.

The milestone journey came to an end at the Nakheel Harbour and Tower station. Victoria Golden, who had completed the entire run with daughter Sophie, got off with a content look on her face. The Metro is not a functional option for her but the first ride was something she has to witness.
‘Sophie’s school begins at 8 am, so I thought we must make the journey before I drop her off,’ Victoria said. ‘I’m quite impressed with the cleanliness and the infrastructure. Though I will not be able give my car up for public transport, my family will be using the Metro over the weekends and in the evenings.

History Dubai Metro

Dubai made history with the opening of the Metro system at 9pm on Wednesday. The world's largest automated driverless Metro system has been built by 30,000 workers at an unprecedented pace and will serve around 1.2 million passengers every day.

Dubai Turns New Page Of History With Metro Launch

Dubai: At the stroke of 09.09.09pm and the swipe of a card, history was made when the first Dubai Metro train pulled out of the station last night.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, accompanied by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, and Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and senior officials, boarded the first train at Mall of the Emirates station en route to Al Rashidiya.

"The Metro is Dubai's socio-economic future," Shaikh Mohammad said.
The maiden trip stopped at the Dubai International Financial Centre station, where a commemorative coin was launched.

The next stop was Khalid Bin Waleed station (BurJuman), and an etched poem was inaugurated. Then on to Union Square station where a Time Capsule - Message to the Future was installed.
At Dubai Airport Terminal 3 station a mosaic portrait was unveiled and at the last stop, Al Rashidiya station, a Lego sculpture of a blue Metro train was revealed.
The Metro will bring about a major shift in Dubai's public transport culture.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) spoke at the launch of the Dubai Metro: "Dubai deserves this achievement. There have been serious achievements in this project. Strong hands and minds created, planned and executed. There was determination and support for this achievement.
"We in Dubai established 29 stations in four years: this is the achievement that Dubai deserves. First of all, this shows Dubai's ability to lead, whether there is a global downturn or not. We are happy to be pioneers in our region, to have achieved this. Our project has been launched with a strong resolution and strong determination, which we have obtained from Shaikh Mohammad's own energy.

"I thank everyone who has worked on the project. I pledge to you that we will continue the hard work without respite, to execute Dubai's strategic plan."
The blue and the purple lines of Dubai Metro will be established with the public and private sectors partnership, said Al Tayer at the press conference held after the official launch of the metro.

He said there is a national policy to connect all emirates and the RTA has signed contracts to develop bus links to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
"Dubai Metro will be a big challenge for us starting today (Thursday) as the operation and the maintenance is equally hard," Al Tayer said.
Abdul Majeed Al Khaja, chief executive officer of RTA's Rail Agency, said they will not relax as the hard work just started. He also affirmed that all the stations on the Red Line will open by February 2010.
Shaikh Mohammad witnessed unforgettable moments during the process of construction of the Metro.
He laid the foundation stone at a glittering ceremony on March 21, 2006.
Approximately 200,000 Nol cards have been sold to date, Al Tayer said.

The Top Underground Transit Systems

When you're traveling around the world, it's good to know that there are public transit systems available to help you get where you want to go. Underground subway systems offer the convenience of getting where you want when you want without the hassle of having to flag down a taxi or rent a car. In just about all cases, it's the most cost effective option. There are some beautiful, modern, and vast rapid transit systems throughout the world. The most popular and diverse international underground transit systems are listed below, but are merely a sample of the quite eye-catching transit systems that exist throughout the world.

The First Underground Railways

In 1854 an Act of Parliament was passed approving the construction of an underground railway between Paddington Station and Farringdon Street via King's Cross which was to be called the Metropolitan Railway. The Great Western Railway (GWR) gave financial backing to the project when it was agreed that a junction would be built linking the underground railway with their mainline terminus at Paddington. GWR also agreed to design special trains for the new subterranean railway.
A shortage of funds delayed construction for several years। The fact that this project got under way at all was largely due to the lobbying of Charles Pearson, who was Solicitor to the City of London Corporation at the time. Pearson had supported the idea of an underground railway in London for several years. He advocated plans for the demolition of the unhygienic slums which would be replaced by new accommodation for their inhabitants in the suburbs, with the new railway providing transportation to their places of work in the city centre. Although he was never directly involved in the running of the Metropolitan Railway, he is widely credited as being one of the first true visionaries behind the concept of underground railways. And in 1859 it was Pearson who persuaded the City of London Corporation to help fund the scheme. Work finally began in February 1860, under the guidance of chief engineer John Fowler. Pearson died before the work was completed.

The Metropolitan Railway opened on 10 January 1863. Within a few months of opening it was carrying over 26,000 passengers a day. The Hammersmith and City Railway was opened on 13 June 1864 between Hammersmith and Paddington. Services were initially operated by GWR between Hammersmith and Farringdon Street. By April 1865 the Metropolitan had taken over the service. On 23 December 1865 the Metropolitan's eastern extension to Moorgate Street opened. Later in the decade other branches were opened to Swiss Cottage, South Kensington and Addison Road, Kensington (now known as Kensington Olympia). The railway had initially been dual gauge, allowing for the use of GWR's signature broad gauge rolling stock and the more widely used standard gauge stock. Disagreements with GWR had forced the Metropolitan to switch to standard gauge in 1863 after GWR withdrew all its stock from the railway. These differences were later patched up, however broad gauge was totally withdrawn from the railway in March 1869.
On 24 December 1868, the Metropolitan District Railway began operating services between South Kensington and Westminster using Metropolitan Railway trains and carriages। The company, which soon became known as "the District", was first incorporated in 1864 to complete an Inner Circle railway around London in conjunction with the Metropolitan. This was part of a plan to build both an Inner Circle line and Outer Circle line around London.

A fierce rivalry soon developed between the District and the Metropolitan. This severely delayed the completion of the Inner Circle project as the two companies competed to build far more financially lucrative railways in the suburbs of London. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) began running their Outer Circle service from Broad Street via Willesden Junction, Addison Road and Earl's Court to Mansion House in 1872. The Inner Circle was not completed until 1884, with the Metropolitan and the District jointly running services. In the meantime, the District had finished its route between West Brompton and Blackfriars in 1870, with an interchange with the Metropolitan at South Kensington. In 1877, it began running its own services from Hammersmith to Richmond, on a line originally opened by the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1869. The District then opened a new line from Turnham Green to Ealing in 1879 and extended its West Brompton branch to Fulham in 1880. Over the same decade the Metropolitan was extended to Harrow-on-the-Hill station in the north-west.
The early tunnels were dug mainly using cut-and-cover construction methods. This caused widespread disruption and required the demolition of several properties on the surface. The first trains were steam-hauled, which required effective ventilation to the surface. Ventilation shafts at various points on the route allowed the engines to expel steam and bring fresh air into the tunnels. One such vent is at Leinster Gardens, W2. In order to preserve the visual characteristics in what is still a well-to-do street, a five-foot-thick (1.5 m) concrete façade was constructed to resemble a genuine house frontage.
On 7 December 1869 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) started operating a service between Wapping and New Cross Gate on the East London Railway (ELR) using the Thames Tunnel designed by Marc Brunel, who designed the revolutionary tunnelling shield method which made its construction not only possible, but safer, and completed by his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel। This had opened in 1843 as a pedestrian tunnel, but in 1865 it was purchased by the ELR (a consortium of six railway companies: the Great Eastern Railway (GER); London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR); London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR); South Eastern Railway (SER); Metropolitan Railway; and the Metropolitan District Railway) and converted into a railway tunnel. In 1884 the District and the Metropolitan began to operate services on the line.

By the end of the 1880s, underground railways reached Chesham on the Metropolitan, Hounslow, Wimbledon and Whitechapel on the District and New Cross on the East London Railway. By the end of the 19th century, the Metropolitan had extended its lines far outside of London to Aylesbury, Verney Junction and Brill, creating new suburbs along the route—later publicised by the company as Metro-land. Right up until the 1930s the company maintained ambitions to be considered as a main line rather than an urban railway.

Stations and lines

The London Underground's 11 lines are the Bakerloo line, Central line, Circle line, District line, Hammersmith & City line, Jubilee line, Metropolitan line, Northern line, Piccadilly line, Victoria line, and Waterloo & City line.
Until 2007 there was a twelfth line, the East London line, but this has closed for rebuilding work। It will be reopen as part of London Overground - part of the National Rail network and eventually connected to its North London Line - in 2010.

The London Underground is Europe's largest metro subway system and is the world's oldest underground system (it was inaugurated in 1863). It covers 253 miles of track and transports 976 million people yearly. The Underground is also connected to a variety of rail services to London's surrounding areas (including the Eurostar to Paris). Among these services is the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), a popular driverless light rail extension, which offers many scenic views of the Thames river and surrounding areas. Highlights: Cushioned seats. LED time displays hanging from the ceiling in stations indicate the number of minutes you need to wait before the next train. Eclectic station artwork (such as this January 1st photograph of the Gloucester Road station). Oyster cards allow you to touch against a subway turnstile and go -- and you can pay as you ride.

HISTORY

Railway construction in the United Kingdom began in the early 19th century. By 1854 six separate railway terminals had been built just outside the centre of London: London Bridge, Euston, Paddington, King's Cross, Bishopsgate and Waterloo. At this point, only Fenchurch Street Station was located in the actual City of London. Traffic congestion in the city and the surrounding areas had increased significantly in this period, partly due to the need for rail travellers to complete their journeys into the city centre by road. The idea of building an underground railway to link the City of London with the mainline terminals had first been proposed in the 1830s, but it was not until the 1850s that the idea was taken seriously as a solution to traffic congestion.

Metro London, England

The London Underground, Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. The first section opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world,and, starting in 1890, it was also the first to operate electric trains.It is usually referred to as the Underground or the Tube—the latter deriving from the shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels—although about 55% of the network is above ground.
The earlier lines of the present London Underground network were built by various private companies. Apart from the main line railways, they became part of an integrated transport system in 1933 when the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) or "London Transport" was created. The underground network became a single entity in 1985, when the UK government created London Underground Limited (LUL).Since 2003 LUL has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL), the statutory corporation responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London, which is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the Mayor of London.



The Underground has 270 stationsand about 400 km (250 miles) of track,making it the longest metro system in the world by route length.It also has one of the highest number of stations. In 2007, more than one billion passenger journeys were recorded, making it the third busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow and Paris.
The tube map, with its schematic non-geographical layout and colour-coded lines, is considered a design classic, and many other transport maps worldwide have been influenced by it.

Metro Paris, France

The Paris subway system is the second oldest in the world (the initial system was completed in 1900) and aids roughly 1.365 billion people with their daily commutes. Running over 133.7 miles of track and stopping at 380 stations, it has a great amount of coverage throughout the city. Highlights: Excellent coverage: every building in the city is within 500 meters (1600 feet) of a subway station. Many stations were designed with the distinctive unique art noveau style. Modest fares.

Metro Moscow, Russia

The Moscow subway system has the biggest ridership of all metro systems throughout the world, with 3.2 billion riders annually traveling on 12 subway lines to 172 stations. In total, the Moscow Metro covers approximately 178 miles. On an average weekday, the subway itself carries about 8.2 million passengers. While most of the Moscow trains run underground, some lines cross bridges and provide scenic views of the Moskva River and the Yauza River. Highlights: Ornate architecture (at least 44 of these stations are rated as architectural sights). The system has many trains that stop frequently (trains stop at stations approximately every 90 seconds during peak hours). Fastest worldwide system (120km/h or 75mph).

Metro Madrid, Spain

The Madrid Metro is the second largest underground system in Europe and the sixth largest system in the world. It has 141.7 miles of track and an additional 27.5 miles are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The Madrid Metro is the densest metro network in the world. Highlights: Very clean and is implementing an ecologic cleaning system. Fast rides. Affordable fares. Great progress in system expansion (47 miles of new subway lines were built between 1999 and 2003). Modern stations.

Metro Tokyo, Japan

The Tokyo subway system carries approximately 2.8 billion people per year to 282 subway stations. In addition to underground subways, the Tokyo transit system consists of the Toden Arakawa light rail line and the Ueno Zoo Monorail. Highlights: Extremely clean. Trains are on time. The seats are heated. Trains always stop in the same place alongside markers. Subway stops are announced in both Japanese and English. Modern system. The system has underground malls and customer amenities.

Metro Seoul, Korea

The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is one of the most heavily used subway systems in the world with more than 8 million daily trips. It is also one of the biggest subway stations worldwide, running 179.4 miles in length. The trains mostly run underground, but 30% of the system is above ground. Highlights: Beautiful architecture. Growth of the system has been incredible over the past few years. Utilizes T-money, a prepaid transportation card for transport throughout the city.

Metro New York City, USA

The New York City rapid transit system is one of the most extensive public transit systems worldwide. It has grown from 28 stations when it was founded in October of 1904 to 462 stations presently. The subway carries 4.9 million people daily. Highlights: Offers express services that run on separate tracks from local trains. The MTA is currently testing out LED displays in subway stations to let commuters know when the next train is expected to arrive. 24 hour service. Unique and distinct artwork (mosaics) throughout the system.

Metro Montreal, Canada

The Montreal Metro is a modern system that was inaugurated in 1966. It is a small (37.8 miles reaching 65 stations on four lines) yet unique and modern system that was inspired by the Paris Metro. Highlights: Diverse, beautiful architecture and unique station art (each station is designed by a different architect). Pleasant riding experience (smooth rides: the trains run on a rubber surface to reduce the screech of train cars). Trains are frequent and fairly comfortable.

Beijing Subway, China

The Beijing Subway is a relatively new subway system that opened in 1969 and serves Beijing and the surrounding suburbs. It is currently being expanded upon in a 7.69 billion USD (63.8 billion yuan) project to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. The expansion project is expected to bring the current length of the subway station from approximately 71 miles to nearly 300 miles.

Highlights:
Fairly easy subway to navigate (especially if you're a foreigner). Cheap fare (3 yen for most trips). Interesting architecture on the newer subway lines. A very ambitious expansion project is in the works.

MTR, Hong Kong

The Hong Kong subway, also known as the Mass Transit Railway (which translates to "underground railway" in English), was established in 1979. Despite its relatively small size compared (56 miles) to other transit systems, the MTR transports an average of 2.46 million rides per day. The Hong Kong system is based on a British design.



Highlights
Efficient. Frequent service, High-capacity cars. Extremely affordable. Clean and modern system with air-conditioned cars. Uses the Octopus contactless smart card for subway currency, allowing travelers to swipe their card near the turnstile for easy access to train platforms.