Commuters will benefit from Etihad Rail’s freight network as huge numbers of lorries are taken off the UAE's roads, making them safer, a top executive has said.
Gottfried Eymer, the new chief executive of the Etihad Rail freight network, said the shift of so many heavy goods vehicles from roads to the railway would also reduce travel times for motorists.
Speaking to The National at the Middle East Rail conference on Monday, Mr Eymer said the freight network would bring big social and environmental benefits as well as economic advantages.
Instead of 300 trucks, you have one train driver
Gottfried Eymer,
Etihad Rail freight network chief executive
“The benefit for people will be very good and positive,” said Mr Eymer, a freight rail industry veteran from Germany. “Instead of 300 lorries, you have one train driver. Instead of people waiting in traffic jams, we are moving lorries to railway. As we are providing those services on a different network, we are delivering the streets for daily road transport.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Eymer also talked about what he wants to achieve as chief executive, how freight will transform the UAE, and how he was stunned by the scale and ambition of the project.
Etihad Rail’s first freight line opened in Abu Dhabi in 2016, transporting sulphur from gasfields to Ruwais port. UAE-wide freight services were formally launched in February.
According to Mr Eymer, trains are now running across the network and the operations include testing the system to make sure everything is in order. About 20 million tonnes are expected to be transported across the UAE this year with a target of 60 million tonnes by 2030, as trains carry everything from shipping container units to petrochemicals, to construction materials from quarries in the Northern Emirates.
“The main priority is [getting] started this year,” said Mr Eymer. “Then to build up route traffic.”
Freight trains will travel at speeds of up to 120 kph, connecting the seven emirates, four major ports and other key logistics centres across the country. The network consists of a fleet of 38 locomotives and more than 1,000 wagons. Important for the UAE will be the easy transport of raw materials from quarries in the Northern Emirates to Abu Dhabi where major construction projects are taking place. “[It is also] connecting four important harbours: Fujairah; Ruwais; Khalifa Port and Jebel Ali. The four main hubs in this country are connected now with rail,” he added.
Mr Eymer said this means container units shipped through the ports can be easily transported by rail to other transport hubs in the country and then loaded on to lorries to their final destination. As well as each train removing 300 lorries from the roads, it is envisaged the network will boost the country’s drive for net-zero emissions by 2050. Etihad Rail aims to remove 8.2 million tonnes of C02 emissions annually from the road transport sector, which is a reduction of 21 per cent a year by 2050.
Mr Eymer, who previously worked for German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, remains largely tight-lipped about any future plans, including moves to establish a GCC-wide network, and said he is concentrating on his role in the UAE. But it is clear that he is impressed with the scale and ambition of the Etihad Rail project.
“It is incredible. It is stunning,” he said. “I spent a lot of years in Europe and to see how fast they have done this … with this accuracy, this respect for budget, respect for timeline, and still have a network that is extremely modern, with state-of-the-art safety systems … it is stunning and I’m really surprised how well they have done it.”
Mr Eymer said investment in infrastructure and logistics will also drive growth in industry, trade and retail. “There is a fantastic connection to main harbours. Companies will come here.”
Etihad Rail was first launched in 2009 and just 14 years later the UAE-wide freight network is complete, with a passenger service to follow. It is clear Mr Eymer is excited about the challenges and he paid tribute to the team.
“I’m very excited,” he said. “When you come from Europe … you work hard to change 5 per cent of things. Here you really do something which is starting from scratch and it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Where do you have that in the world? Very few places. It is fantastic.”
Etihad Rail megaproject - in numbers
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
Juliet, Naked
Dir: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke
Two stars
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
MATCH INFO
West Ham United 2 (Antonio 73', Ogbonna 90 5')
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 36', Moura 42', Kane 49')
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
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How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Schedule:
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
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