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Jumeirah Palm Island Monorail

Wednesday 17 March 2010 (UAE)

Jumeirah Palm Island monorail in Dubai

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The Jumeirah Palm monorail in Dubai launched in May 2009 and will ferry commuters and tourists between the Atlantis hotel resort Aquaventure Park at one end of the island, and Gateway Towers at the entrance to the island, next to the One&Only Royal Mirage hotel. The train is elevated so passengers can get a good view over the Palm Island as they cruise along. The opening of the monorail is significant as it is reportedly the first time public railway transport of this nature has started running in the UAE, the Gulf, and the Middle East.

Ticket Prices	Hours	Train frequency	Journey length	Stations
AED 15 one way	0800-2200	3 mins peak	5 mins one way	Gateway Towers
AED 25 return	7 days	15 mins off-peak	5.45 km one way	Atlantis Aquaventure

Monorail tickets cost AED 15 one way or AED 25 return.
Season tickets are under consideration but no further information at the time of opening.
Monorail operating hours are 0800-2200 (8am-10pm) seven days per week.
Journey length (one way) is 5.45 km and takes 5 minutes.
Train frequency was expected to be every 3 minutes during peak times, and every 12-15 minutes at off-peak times.
Car parking (covered) available at the Gateway Towers station (for 1500 cars, expansion to 4500 cars possible in the future) in a multi-floor building which will eventually have a small food court and viewing platform.
The monorail will be extended to join the Dubai Metro on Sheikh Zayed Road at the TECOM station (Dubai Metro starts operating in September 2009 but a bus service will operate between the Gateway Towers Station and the Dubai Metro until the Jumeirah Monorail extension is completed).
The monorail is also expected to connect to the Al Sufouh Tram one day.
Monorail trains are driverless, total of 4 trains operating, will increase to 9 trains per hour after the monorail connects to the Dubai Metro.
Each train has three carriages.
Passenger capacity is 2,400 per hour, which will increase to 6,000 passengers per hour after Dubai Metro connection.
Four stations on the monorail route: Gateway Towers (open), Palm Mall Village Center Station (closed), Trump Tower Station (closed), Atlantis Hotel (open). The Palm Mall Station and Trump Tower Station might be open in 2011 (and possibly renamed if the Trump Tower gets suspended - it's on hold at the time of the opening of the monorail).
Speed - up to 70 km per hour.
Monorail developed by consortium of developers, led by Marubeni Corp of Japan, and including Obayashi, a civil contractor Obayashi, and Hitachi, a train builder and mechanical/electrical contractor, at their Kasado Works plant in Japan.
Monitoring of the project and quality assurance carried out by Mott MacDonald Group, a large UK based company with an office in Dubai (and just about any other city or country you can think of).
The monorail is operated by SMRT Engineering Pte Ltd of Singapore who have supplied 100 employees to press the start and stop buttons.
Director of the monorail project is Marwan Al Qamzi, Executive Managing Director of Nakheel Southern Projects.
Cost of the Jumeirah Monorail project was AED 1.4 billion (US$380 million), equivalent to the cost of 56 million return tickets on the monorail, which would take about 5 years to recover if the train ran at full capacity of 2400 passengers per hour during opening hours.
First train was delivered in October 2008, and testing of trains began in November 2008.
First operating date was 30 April 2009 or 06 May 2009 or 05 May 2009 depending on which newspaper you read. A press release from Nakheel says the official opening ceremony was Thursday 30 April 2009.

Jumeirah Palm Island Monorail