The electric trolley tram will ply on a seven-kilometre stretch and save people the trouble of having to walk in the Downtown area, especially in the summer months.
Dubai: Walk down Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, past the sandstone enclave of Souk Al Bahar, and you can’t mistake the billboards announcing the newest arrival on the Downtown connectivity scene.
An artist’s impression of the Dubai Trolley tram in Downtown Dubai. — Supplied photo
Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram and now the Dubai Trolley tram in Downtown Dubai with it’s near zero carbon emissions. Commuting in Dubai is undergoing a rapid change. November saw the inauguration of Phase 1 of Dubai Tram, the 10km stretch of the Al Sofouh tramway, and now after months of hoardings advertising the ‘carnivalesque’ bright red with gold stripes train, Emaar has officially launched their ‘Ho-Ho’ transit system — the ‘Hop on - Hop off’ trolley. Work on the first phase of the trolley-tracks and the trolley depots has begun.The electric trolley tram will ply on a seven-kilometre stretch and save people the trouble of having to walk in the Downtown area, especially in the summer months.
The trolley will go along Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, the downtown areas — Souk Al Bahar, The Dubai Mall to Burj Khalifa, The Address Hotel — and to the under-construction ‘Opera District’. This first phase of the trolley will cover one kilometre and three stations and is scheduled to be inaugurated “early next year”, according to Emaar.
Residents in the area are not too pleased with the cordoned-off sections of dug-up roads and the prospect of traffic hold-ups but acknowledge the benefit the Trolley could be in the future. Mathilda Irons, resident of South Ridge Apartments in Downtown Dubai, says, “It doesn’t make sense to take the car to the mall or to go grocery shopping when you live in the area, so let’s hope the trolley will make it easier.”
The stay-at-home British mum says, “I do hope it’s a bit faster than Dubai Tram. We went on it when it was inaugurated, and it was a bit slow, I thought, but superbly connected.” The Trolley will move at a speed of 16 kilometres per hour.
Downtown Dubai is linked to the Metro by the air-conditioned travellators in the metro link — “a very long walk,” says Nora Bautista, This Filipino employee of a cosmetics brand is one of the hundreds of commuters who walk the long stretch everyday.
Bautista says she must be walking five kilometres everyday from the metro to the shop on the far end of second floor and back to the metro, and again when she gets off at her home station in Deira. “The Trolley won’t help distance from the metro station to The Dubai Mall. Won’t help me. But will be nice for people visiting from outside,” she said.
Besides connecting the boulevard stretch, the other aim of the trolley is also for the benefit of tourists. Ahmad Al Matrooshi, managing director of Emaar Properties, said: “Dubai Trolley.. builds on the trolley tram systems that are in use in several cities across the US and Europe. While they were a game-changer in public transport when first invented in the 1880s by introducing a new concept to urban mobility, they are now largely used as tourist attractions.
“We have innovated further on both design and technology... (Trolley is) an environmentally sustainable system… a convenient and user-friendly transit mode to Downtown Dubai. It will add tremendous value to residents and visitors.”
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/transport/2014/December/transport_December11.xml§ion=transport
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