: Dubai Metro – Our First Ride
After Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum officially opened the Dubai Metro on the 9th of September 2009 the Dubai Informer team was excited to test it on its own. We decided Friday would be a good day. Friday morning, everything prepared and the videocamera fully charged we headed to Deira City Center, parked the car and started. The Metro Station Deira City Center had one security guy inside, just to tell us through the window that the station wont open until 2pm. What??? It was announced that the operations start from 6am. Ok – first Dubai Metro experience – not so great. Ok, we rolled it all back and tried the same at 2.30pm.
This time the station was open and not even crowded, at least the entrance. As soon as we reached inside we noticed loads of people queuing up at the ticket station and the Dubai Metro information counters. Luckily for us we spotted the ticketing machine on the other side of the Metro Station so it took us only a few minutes to get our tickets. The helpful gentlemen from RTA explained the procedure to every single passenger. Its a ticketing machine – not too complicated if you ever used one before 
We got ourselfs the Dubai Metro Gold Ticket which costs 9 AED from Deira City Center to Mall of the Emirates or farther. The whole system is categorized in Zones. It is quite easy to understand.
- Dubai Metro Ticket 1 – Dubaiinformer
- Dubai Metro Ticket 2 – Dubaiinformer
After talking to some of the excited passengers and watching the behaviour of the crowd we went down to the trains towards Jebel Ali. The Dubai Metro Train arrived within minutes and was quite crowded, even in the first part, which is reserved for Gold Class Tickets. But this is probably the sightseeing effect of the first few days. The trains look inside really up to date, with flatscreens announcing the stations and the remaining time (was not yet working). There are also maps with the different stations and a big board which announces the next stop. This also happens via voice announcement in English and Arabic. We went all the way to the Nakheel Harbour & Tower station (which is currently the last one). The speed of the trains is quite fast already, considering that this is the first week of operation for Dubai Metro and not to forget that this is a driverless system. The crowd inside the train was cheering when another train passed by in the other direction. We left the train at the final station and went directly to the other side for our ride back. Little did we know.
The Dubai Metro train arrived quickly and we all boarded again, everything went fine until we reached Dubai Financial Center Station. The annoncement of the station was already interrupted for some reason. We would not move from this place for nearly 60 minutes. After 30 minutes there was a train attendant informing us that she also did not really know what happened, probably a technical issue which would quickly be resolved. A while after that we were ordered outside and had to wait for 30 more minutes. Then another train arrived and we all went inside, hoping that the advernture was finished now. 10 minutes later the train started and everything was fine until the next station – Al Jafiliya. This was where our Dubai Metro train stopped again for 60 minutes with different announcements, one train attendant knew that soemone in the other train pulled the emergency break, then there was again the story with the technical problem which was already attended to. Poor girls did not get any information form their bosses it seemed.
After this one hour stop someone finally told us to leave the train, without more information. The station manager was very friendly, but also clueless. The people who could handle refunds had already left (of course, if you see a problem and you realize you did not train your staff for this, better run away). He said that there are busses coming, but nobody could find them. So we went outside triyng to catch a normal bus. Finally we ended up taking a taxi back to Deira City Center to get back in our car. Dubai Metro shut down completely for that day we heard later on.
Dont get us wrong, a new system can always fail, and this is expected, absolutely correct. But why does RTA not have a backup plan for this? The staff was there for almost six months now and nobody trained them for such a situation? Refund a ticket – this can’t be so difficult. Especially in the first few weeks such things are expected to happen and should be planned. Dubai Metro – first experience – not so good 
What was your experience with Dubai Metro? What should be improved? What is really cool already? Will you use Dubai Metro for your daily commute? Or just for fun and shopping trips? Or not at all? Tell us what you think and leave your comment below…
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