On June 14, Alstom Transport presented the first of 11 Citadis trams for Dubai (UAE) to His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA). The visit to Alstom’s La Rochelle plant also gave the RTA chairman a chance to participate in the tram’s dynamic tests.
Citadis for Dubai is the first Alstom’s tram with tropicalized new-generation equipment adapted to extreme weather conditions. Dubai’s Citadis tram is 44 meters long and can accommodate 408 passengers at a time and a total of 5,000 passengers per hour per direction. Thanks to a video broadcasting and information system installed on-board as well as on stations, passengers will be informed in real time.
Al Sufouth tramway line is the first turnkey catenary-free tramway project in the Middle East. It runs for 14.7 kilometres along Al Sufouh Street, connecting landmarks, residential areas and tourist sights such as Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai Media City and Dubai Marina. It will serve 11 air-conditioned stations equipped with automatic platform screen doors.
The line will be equipped with Urbalis to enable tramset speed control, automatic protection at road crossings, synchronization of stops at stations and the opening of platform screen doors. The trams are scheduled to be commissioned in 2014.
