So the most eagerly awaited Dubai metro is finally almost on its completion and it’s launch. The red line which connects Jebel Ali to the main city is almost complete. What is also complete is the anticipation of people regarding the metro and what it will bring with it. Connectivity is the key and the Dubai metro seeks to connect and move people from one place to the other.
Where Dubai metro brings hope and positive effects, there are possible negative outcomes of the metro as well. Either way, for the first few months people will get settled to the metro and adjust themselves to yet another landmark of Dubai.
Have you ever noticed how you made friends in the bus while going to school and back when you were younger? Dubai metro is the big bus of Dubai which will help people get connected and get to know each other. People waiting for the metro at the station would be able to chat with each other and be acquainted. The people using the feeder buses to get to the metro stations will all have one thing in common. They will all be going to the metro station to use Dubai metro. There is a chance people might make friends. Metro for Dubai will be what Facebook is for the internet, a social networking platform. Not only will people be able to travel on clean new metro trains, but they will be able to do that cheaply and also in the process create some new friends.
The metro fares were announce, they are the second cheapest in the world. Cheaper than London or Japan. A day pass for the metro costs just 14 dirhams, which is one dirham cheaper than using door to door buses. RTA announced the cost of all modes of transportation to be 14 dirhams for a day recently. A one way journey on the metro costs 80 fils. The pronouncement of the fares brings excitement to the people of Dubai. Not only are the possible commuters excited but everyone from office workers to mall owners are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the metro and wondering where the metro will take Dubai next.
Mall of the Emirates is on an extension plan and the construction is going full speed ahead, to be completed in time for the metro’s launch on 9/9/09. The new wing of Mall of the Emirates will house 40 new shops and also will be connected to the Dubai Metro’s Mall of the Emirates station. Similar kind of plans and stations for the metro have been seen sprouting all over the city, making the concrete jungle even more congested.
Where there are all the positive outcomes being predicted with the coming of the Metro, there are also the negatives. Mall of the Emirates has announced a plan for paid parking in wake of the Metro’s MOE station. The mall fears that non mall users will park their cars in the mall’s parking using it as a parking for the metro. The Mall’s fears are genuine but that means that mall users will have to pay in order to use the parking facilities of the mall. Maybe a mall user parking card in the future should suffice to solve this problem?
Along with this, there is also the worry by many people that they will be made redundant by the metro’s invocation. Commuters in Dubai right now use private bus transport or buses and other kinds of transportation to get to work and back home. With the metro and it’s cheap fares, there is a chance that many people will start using the metro. What will happen to the private bus companies that operate solely on the pretext that people will use the service to get to work and back home? Metro is a huge competitor in the making which is about to tower upon them. The companies in Dubai are mostly under threat by the metro and not in the other emirates, especially Sharjah, because the metro does not service Sharjah. However the recently announced feeder buses which will take commuters to Dubai and the metro stations are still a threat to the private bus companies.
How important will the metro be for Dubai and for shaping Dubai’s future? Will the Dubai Metro put Dubai back on the map once again, after landmarks like Burj Dubai, Burj Al Arab and the most recent Atlantis Palm Jumeirah? Only time will tell.
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