The experience of travelling at 45kph to 90kph on a train without a driver will be a new one for many Metro passengers, and the Roads and Transport Authority says it has gone to great lengths to ensure that the trains are safe.
In fact, safety was cited as the reason that 19 of the Metro's 29 stations will not be opening on time.
"We don't want the system to break down," said Mattar al Tayer, the chairman of the board and executive director of the RTA. "We do not want to compromise safety."
The organisation charged with scrutinising safety on the Metro is the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), the safety regulator of Britain's railways. The independent ORR, led by a board whose members are appointed by the British government's secretary of state for transport, signed a memorandum of understanding with the RTA last December 17 to provide strategic advice and support on a range of issues.
These included the development of health and safety regulations, the setting up of databases to capture and analyse railway performance and safety data and the training and mentoring of RTA staff. Since then, ORR teams have been scrutinising tracks and processes to make sure everything is up to recognised standards.
The RTA has also drafted its own international team of experienced rail-safety experts, including Stanley Robertson, the former UK Chief Inspector of Railways, and Michael Etwell and Amair Saleem, who were both part of the certification team for the recent Taiwan High Speed Rail Project, which began operations at the start of 2007.
Every kind of emergency has been anticipated, and local climate conditions taken into account.
"If a carriage got stuck, we would have to make sure it had air-conditioning," said Allen Spence, the deputy chief inspector of the ORR. "The operators will put the emergency evacuation procedures in place, and the RTA will oversee that."
A power failure is a remote prospect since there are two standby generators should the first one fail. If for any reason a train cannot be driven to the nearest station, passengers will be evacuated on to walkways on either side of the tracks. The longest walk they would face is 350 metres to one of the emergency evacuation staircases that lead to ground level, located every 700 metres along the line, in accordance with international safety standards.
Standing by to help in event of emergencies will be a response team comprised of specialists from Dubai Police, the train operator Serco, the RTA, the ambulance service and Dubai Civil Defence.
"The Department of Civil Defence is making every effort to achieve its full readiness and strategic partners to deal with various emergency situations in order to implement all the requirements of safety, protection and ensuring coverage of operational requirements for rescue and fire fighting," said Maj Gen Rashid Thani al Matrooshi, the director general of the department.
Trains will be protected from the possibility of derailment by a central concrete plinth that runs the length of each of the twin tracks, while a "wayside obstacle detection system" is designed to detect objects on the line, which in a number of places passes under road bridges.
Passenger safety will be further protected by closed-circuit TV cameras - several in every train and 3,000 outside along the 52km length of the tracks.
Computers will play a safety role. Collisions are a common cause of deaths in railway systems throughout the world, but the software overseeing the Dubai Metro network is designed to prevent any possibility of this. If one train breaks down or stops for any reason, every train on the system is halted where it is or is moved to the nearest station. The Automatic Train Protection system keeps staff in a central control room fully informed about the location and movement of every train and automatically prevents any one getting too close to another.
Although the Dubai Metro is billed as "the world's longest driverless rail system", each train will carry a human driver who can take control in emergencies and has been trained in first aid.
And the city has a new law-and-order force: Dubai Transport Police will provide security along the Metro lines. By the time the Green Line is completed next year, up to 600 uniformed officers will be in action. The officers, who have the power of arrest, have been trained by the British Transport Police. Among other skills they have been taught how to spot and deal with suspect packages, including explosive devices.
eharnan@thenational.ae
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
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
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The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
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