The Palm Monorail, connecting the Palm Jumeirah with the Dubai shore, is now officially open.
At a ceremony held at the Gateway Station on the Dubai end of the monorail line earlier this week, Nakheel flagged off the service that runs to the Atlantis station at its farthest end on The Palm.
The monorail, claimed to be the first transport system of its kind in the Middle East, is now running four trains between the Gateway Towers and Atlantis stations, with a capacity of 2,400 passengers per hour per direction in four separate trains, each made up of three cars.
The service runs from 8:00am to 10:00pm daily with tickets costing Dh15 for a single journey and Dh25 for a round trip.
The frequency will be increased to a total of nine trains per hour with nine vehicles with a capacity of 6,000 passengers per hour per day once connected to the Dubai Metro.
At the opening ceremony, Marwan Al Qamzi, Executive Managing Director of Nakheel Southern Projects, and other Nakheel officials were joined by guests Nazek Al Sabbagh, Trakhees Managing Director; Amair Saleem, Director of the RTA's Safety Regulation and Planning Department; and Col Abdulla Ali Abdulla Al Ghithi, Deputy Director of Protection and Security at Dubai Police.
Al Qamzi said: "It is a very exciting day for us. The Palm Monorail is now open to the public after months of rigorous testing and trials. The opening is a significant step in the creation of a fully integrated public transport system for Dubai."
According to Nakheel, state-of-the-art technology has been employed to overcome a number of challenges, including running 1,000 metres of the rail over the sea, meeting Dubai's unique climatic conditions, and protecting the communities of Palm Jumeirah from noise pollution by using a virtually silent track system.
Developed by a consortium of leading global firms, led by Japan's Marubeni Corp, the Palm Monorail's system is fully automatic and driverless, although an attendant will be on board at all times.
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