DUBAI // When the clock strikes midnight and the rest of Dubai is asleep, the Metro's maintenance brigade goes into action.
Dozens of engineers and workers check the track, fix faults inside coaches and repair train cables in the workshop. Some trains are guided into a light repair workshop and others are parked inside the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) sprawling Rashidiya depot. A few trains on side tracks off the main line are already scrubbed and cleaned for the next day.
Work begins in earnest after the last train rolls out and the shutters of Metro stations shut for the night.
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Also
• Metro fares among world's cheapest
• Metro passengers top one million
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“When one person finishes work, someone else’s work starts,” said Ali Abdul Qader Saeed, the director of the RTA rail maintenance department. “People don’t realise how much attention must be paid to safety issues at night before the first passenger gets on the train in the morning.”
Groups of workers with orange safety vests and white helmets walk along stretches of track earmarked by the Operation Control Centre, which runs the Metro by day and sets the night work schedule. Their work starts when rail operations are halted and trains head to Rashidiya or the Jebel Ali depot at either end of the 52-kilometre Red Line.
“Every night a certain section of track is taken up and workers physically walk and check it,” said Mr Saeed about the 15-day period during which the entire track is covered. “They check for any obstruction, any abnormality on the track and in the tunnels.”
Although riders have often urged authorities to keep the trains running past midnight, Metro officials say the vital behind-the-scenes work must be completed in the small hours of the night.
“When the train is running, nobody can go on the track for maintenance,” said Ramadan Mohammed, the director of the RTA’s rail operations department. “So when we stop the railway at night we can do the replacement or technical work.”
In the Rashidiya depot, the RTA’s largest at over 174,000 sq metres, trains pull in for a quick night’s rest in an air-conditioned building that can accommodate up to 64 of the vehicles. The glow of red lights on the front coach signals that the train awaits a bit of sprucing up.
“Trains are cleaned once a day,” said a supervisor who did not want to be identified. “We have 17 or 18 people who get on board and it takes one hour per train.”
In a nearby workshop, blue ceiling lights flash and a clanging bell sounds a cautionary warning to clear the elevated tracks as an attendant guides a train into its slot. Each train is brought in every three days for a thorough two-hour inspection that includes an exhaustive checklist.
“Lights must be replaced here,” a worker informs his supervisor as he works his way through a 57-point assessment covering everything from brakes to tail lights. Other workers clamber underneath the trains and use powerful flashlights to inspect the equipment below.
“We check the exterior frame and the interior for problems,” said a supervisor who asked not to be named. “Anything we fix is explained to the next team when we hand over the train.”
Stations, too, are busy after the system shuts down, with station masters on duty through the night to clear staff ranging from attendants lining up for driving tests to contractors completing internal work.
“Nights are busier than the days,” said a station master at Union Station who wished to remain unidentified. “We authorise entry for workers, tally the day’s revenue collection and commuter numbers.”
Back at the Rashidiya depot, dozens of blue and silver trains are readied for some down time.
“We put the trains to sleep after all the checks are done,” Mr Saeed said. “They are in sleep mode because there is nothing more for them to do. They also need rest before they are woken up in the morning.”
It’s back to the grind at 5am, an hour before the Red Line opens, as so-called “sweeping trains” are sent out to confirm the tracks are safe and the Metro is ready for another day’s business.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
STAGE 4 RESULTS
1 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 4:51:51
2 David Dekker (NED) Team Jumbo-Visma
3 Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal
4 Elia Viviani (ITA) Cofidis
5 Matteo Moschetti (ITA) Trek-Segafredo
General Classification
1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 12:50:21
2 Adam Yates (GBR) Teamn Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:43
3 Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:03
4 Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:43
5 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The%20specs
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh1,100,000 (est)
Engine 5.2-litre V10
Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch
Power 630bhp @ 8,000rpm
Torque 600Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 15.7L / 100km (est)
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
