The Palm Monorail is a monorail line on the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is operated by the UK-based Serco. The monorail connects the Palm Jumeirah to the mainland, with a planned further extension to the Red Line of the Dubai Metro.[2] The line opened on 30 April 2009 as the Palm Jumeirah Monorail.[3] It is the first monorail in the Middle East.[4]
The trains are driverless, with attendants for any emergency situations.[1] It currently runs from Gateway Station to Atlantis Aquaventure and stops at the Al Ittihad Park Station and Nakheel Mall station.
History
Construction began on the 5.45-kilometre (3.39mi) monorail line in March 2006,[2] under the supervision of Marubeni Corporation, with the monorail track completed in July 2008 and vehicle testing beginning in November 2008. Originally planned to open by December 2008,[5] the opening was delayed to 30 April 2009.[2][5] In 2010, day-to-day operations were taken over by the British company Serco.[6]
The project budget is US$400 million, with an additional US$190M set aside for a 2-kilometre (1.2mi) future extension to the Dubai Metro,[7] while other sources state a budget of US$1.1 billion.[8] A journey on the monorail costs Dhs20 one-way, 30 return.
The Palm Monorail uses Hitachi Monorail straddle-type technology. The electro-mechanical works are carried out by ETA-Dubai in joint venture with Hitachi-Japan. Omron Electronics Company will provide the train equipment electronic system which will work by using the smart card technique.[11]
Ridership
Each carriage has 70 seats and can accommodate 232 standing passengers, for a total of 302 people.[11]
The line has a theoretical capacity of 40,000 passengers per day, with trains running every few minutes during peak hours and every 15 to 20 minutes during off-peak hours.[2][4] However, actual ridership averaged around 600 passengers per day during the first week,[12] and the monorail ran "virtually empty".[13]As of July 2017[update], the line runs every 11 minutes and averages 3,000 passengers per day.[9]
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