Al Sofouh Tram

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Al Sofouh Tram - dubaifaqs.com information. There was a report in the Gulf News 13 September 2005 with information about the new Al Sufouh Tram project. Summary is...

Al Sufouh tram will service the Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residences, Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, and Dubai Knowledge Village areas, which are forecast to have a population of about 400,000. Breakdown is about 110,000 people in Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residences, about 42,000 in Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village areas, about 150,000 in Jumeirah Lake Towers area, and another 100,000 people that come to work in the area from other parts of Dubai. The tram track will be 11 km long, and run along Al Sufouh Road between Madinat Al Jumeirah and Dubai Marina. It will link up with the Shaikh Zayed Road Dubai metro stations and there will also be a public bus network. Comments from Hashim Mohammad Al Hashemi, Head of Roads Planning Sections at Dubai Municipality included:

"We are also going to modify the road network in Al Sufouh in the wake of rapid development in Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residences,"
"Luxury buses will be used to encourage people use public transport keeping in view the living standards in the area,"
"Given the huge expected population growth scenario, the municipality has started working on the project called Improvement of Al Sufouh Area to avoid traffic congestion and provide high-class public transportation services,"

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Gulf News 06 October 2006 had a report that the Al Sufouh tram would be extended to run for "140km on Jumeirah Road" . I presume they meant 14 km, not 140 km! The tram route would hook up with the Dubai Metro.

Al Sufouh Road will have a 11km long tram track while its extension will be 140km on Jumeirah Road from Burj Al Arab to Union House.

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An update about the Al Sofouh Tram in the Gulf News 27 March 2007. They said Alstom of France is trying to sell its Citadis trams to Dubai. Alstom was also trying to get the Dubai Metro project. Trams are a good thing according to Alstom (well, they would think that if that's what they're selling). Jean-Noel Debroise, vice-president for product and strategy for Alstom Transport was quoted saying "Due to traffic jams and pollution, many European cities began investing in tramways in the 1980s. Now we anticipate new tram projects in South America, North Africa and southern Europe,"

It looks like there might be a tram route in Bur Dubai also - Gulf News report had this comment:

Dubai could have a 15-kilometre tram network on Al Sufouh Road and a 4.1-kilometre network for the Burj Dubai area. It could be linked to the Dubai Metro that is being built to create a viable public transport system in the city.

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A Press Release 02 September 2007 (from the Dubai RTA) about the Al Sufouh Tram said that Systra have been appointed as the consultant for the project, which is odd. I thought Systra was already the consultant / contractor.

"The Rail Agency from the Roads and Transport Authority has appointed the Systra as consultants on the Al Sofouh tram system."

Other information from the press release was that the feasibility study had been completed and the preliminary design study started in June 2007. The trams would transport 5200 people per hour. Abdulredha, the Director of Planning and Design, Rail Agency, was quoted as saying:

"The contractor will be on board this coming December, and is expected to commence construction on the project in January which will take 21-27 months. The first phase of this project is scheduled to be completed in September 2009. Currently around 19 stations are being planned for the 14 km tram stretch out of which three are multimodal interchange stations with the Red Line; these include Mall of the Emirates, Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers. The Metro stations will be equipped with travellators to ease walking between the tram and the Red Line. The tram network will also be in close proximity to Palm Jumeirah to facilitate a future connection to the Mono Rail which is in progress by Nakheel,"

Question. Is it Systra of France or Systra of the USA? Systra France have the Dubai Metro project on their website but some of the local media were reporting Systra to be a US company. It wasn't clear from the press release.

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A Reuters update on the Al Sofouh tram project 16 December 2007 said that:

• The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is planning to spend more than AED 75 billion in the next five years on roads, bridges and the Dubai metro, according to comments in June 2007.
• Al Sufouh tram contract is worth AED 2 billion ($545 million) according to the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED). Companies in the bidding for the design-and-build contract are Alstom (France), Ansaldo (Italy), Marubeni Corp (Japan), Leighton Holdings Ltd (Australia) and Siemens (Germany)
• Phase I of the Al Sufouh tram is expected to start running in conjunction with the Dubai Metro system from September 2009

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The Gulf News interviewed the head of the RTA Rail Agency and reported that work on the Al Sufouh Tram project would start in 2008. Which we knew already. What was interesting was this comment...

"There will be a total of 270 km of tram network in Dubai in both old and new areas to feed the metro stations in addition to providing alternate modes of transport in different areas," said Al Khaja. The RTA will spend some Dh 9.19 billion on different phases of the tram project.

The total tram network length of 270 km sounds like a lot - almost 20 times the 14km length of phase I in Al Sufouh . And the cost seems rather cheap if it really is 270 km. The Dubai Metro is supposed to cost about Dh 14 billion - for stations tracks, trains, everything.