RTA Announces Dubai Tram Service Hours

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced the working hours of Dubai Tram that is all set to launch on Tuesday, November 11, 2014.

The tram, which will begin passenger services a day later, will operate from 6.30 am to 1.30 am from Saturday to Thursday and from 9.00am to 1.30 am on Fridays.

During peak hours, the tramway will serve 11 stations at a 10-minute interval and at a 12-minute interval during non-peak hours.

Each tram has a capacity to accommodate up to 405 riders in seven carriages comprising gold, women & children and silver cabins.

The tramway will serve stations across points such as Jumeirah Breach Residence, Dubai Marina Mall, Marina Towers, Dubai Marina, Mina Siyahi, Dubai Media City, the Palm Jumeirah, Knowledge Village and Sufouh.

There will also be footbridges linking passengers from the Dubai Tram to the metro at Damac Properties and JLT metro stations.

In addition, the tramway intersects with the monorail of the Palm Jumeirah at the entrance of the Palm, Sufouh Street where a multi-level parking lot is in place to serve tram and monorail users, RTA said.

Fare payments for tram rides will be processed through NOL cards, with three fare tiers covering seven public transit zones.

The first tier covers travelling over one or two zones, provided the distance covered is not more than three kilometres, RTA said. The fare for any single trip on the first zone will be Dhs3 while gold class fares will be double the amount charged for silver cabins.

Meanwhile, the second tier covers travelling over two zones with the fare fixed at Dhs5 and the third tier will cover all three zones at a cost of Dhs7.5 for a single trip.

“The Dubai Tram constitutes a paradigm shift in the quality of mass transit means in the emirate of Dubai as it contributes to easing the daily travels of community members side by side other public transport means in operation such as the metro and public buses,” said Abdulla Yousef Al Ali, CEO of RTA Rail Agency.

“Fixing the tram service hours was geared towards meeting the needs of the public and responding to their daily transit patterns, particularly as the tram serves densely populated areas, offering commuter service from and to places of work, besides serving tourist attractions in the emirate.”

The Dubai Tramway is being built in two phases. The initial phase of the project consists of a 10.6 km-long track starting from the Dubai Marina and stretching up to the tram depot near Dubai Police Academy.

In Phase II, 14 trams will be added to make a total of 25 operating trams, with the route extending to a total length of 14.6 kilometres.

The Dubai Tram is expected to transport about 27,000 passengers per day at the start of operations in 2014, with the numbers anticipated to increase to 66,000 per day by 2020.