Dubai Metro’s Expo 2020 station to open on June 1

The Dubai Metro’s Expo 2020 station will be opened on June 1, as the emirate prepares to open the mega event in October this year.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) also confirmed that the Dubai Investment Park station on Route 2020 of the Dubai Metro, which runs from Al Rashidiya station on the red line to Expo 2020 station, will open on June 1.

The opening of the two new stations comes six months after the opening of Route 2020, which launched its maiden journey on Jan 1, 2021 with four stations – Jebel Ali (a transfer station on the red line), The Gardens, The Discovery Gardens, and Al Furjan.

“From June 1st, journeys of Dubai Metro’s red line will shuttle directly between Al Rashidiya station and Expo 2020 station,” said Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the RTA.

“Jebel Ali station will be an interchange station for those heading to or coming from UAE Exchange station.”

From Saturday to Wednesday, the first journey from Al Rashidiya station to Expo 2020 station and vice-versa will start at 5am, and the last journey will start at 12am (midnight).

On Thursday, the first journey will start at 5am and the last journey will start at 1.30 am (of the following day). On Friday, the first journey will start at 10am and the last journey will start at 1.30 am (of the following day).

However, the service to Expo 2020 station will be available only to those entitled to access the Expo site until its official public opening on October 1, 2021.

“By that time, the public can use the metro service to Expo. The opening of the Jumeirah Golf Estates station will coincide with the opening of Expo,” said Al Tayer.

Dubai Investment Park station, which is underground, spans 27,000 square metres in area and extends 226 metres in length. It can serve 13,899 riders per hour during peak times and 250,000 users per day.

The station has two boarding platforms, four bus stands, 20 taxi stands and two parking slots for people of determination. It also offers eight outlets for commercial investment.

Meanwhile the Expo 2020 station, the terminal station of Route 2020 that mainly serves visitors of Expo, features a unique plane-wing design.

The station spans 18,800 square metres in area and extends 119 metres in length. It can serve 29,000 users per hour during peak times and 522,000 users per day.

The station has three boarding platforms and three routes. It is linked from the one side with Expo and Expo COEX, and from another with the mall and the urban complex.

It also features six bus stands, 20 taxi stands and four parking slots for people of determination. It offers nine outlets for commercial investment in addition to four spaces as points of sale.

The travel time between Al Rashidiya and Expo stations will be 1 hour and 14 minutes.

The service frequency will be 2 minutes and 38 seconds during peak time, with 24 trains operating per hour per direction. It have the capacity of 16,000 users per hour per direction.

“The opening of the two stations on Route 2020 concurs with the start of the countdown of Dubai’s hosting of Expo 2020,” said Al Tayer.

“It follows the successful completion of all tests relating to the performance efficiency and safety of the rail systems, and the test runs by the network operator to verify its readiness before the start of the public service. A total of 31 successful trial tests were conducted spanning the operations control centre, stations operations, rolling stock crews, engineering and maintenance teams, and emergency services. RTA also completed the training of 152 staff in preparation for phase II of Route 2020 operation,” he added.

Since the start of operations on January 1 this year, Route 2020 of Dubai Metro has carried out 27,043 journeys.

The Jumeirah Golf Estates station, which will start operation with the opening of Expo 2020, is the biggest underground metro station in the entire Dubai Metro network.

It spans 28,700 square metres in area and extends 232 metres in length. It has a capacity of 11,555 users per hour during peak time and about 250,000 users per day.

The station has two train boarding platforms, four bus stands, 20 taxi stands and two parking slots for people of determination in addition to 14 outlets for commercial investment and four trading outlets.

Route 2020 has a total capacity of 46,000 users per hour in both directions. RTA’s studies anticipate the number of people using Route 2020 to reach 125,000 per day in 2021, and increase to 275,000 per day by 2030.

Studies also reveal that Expo station is expected to record about 35,000 daily visitors of Expo during weekdays, and the number is expected to increase to 47,000 daily visitors during weekends. This number accounts for 29 per cent of the total expected number of daily visitors to Expo.

A French-Japanese consortium of Keolis, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and Mitsubishi Corporation, will officially take over the operation and maintenance of the Dubai Metro and the operation of the Dubai Tram as of September 8, 2021 for 15 years (nine years renewable for a further six years).

“The new operator of the Dubai Metro will shortly be engaged in the operation of Dubai Metro processes in full coordination with the current operator (Serco),” said Al Tayer.

“The step will pave the way for the smooth transfer of the metro operation and maintenance processes, and the Dubai Tram operation to the new operator as of September 8, 2021.”

It will also cater to the smooth transfer of employees of the current operator to the new operator.