Palm Monorail sees movement

Maiden voyage of Palm Monorail
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After years of planning, months of rigorous testing and approximately US $590 million, Nakheel’s Palm Monorail is operational.

Seen as the first leg of the larger Dubai Metro project, the monorail can currently transport 2400 passengers per hour, per day, which will increase to 6,000 once linked with the metro. 

The first transport system of its kind to operate in the Middle East, the Palm Monorail was developed by a consortium of leading international companies—led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and operated by Singapore’s SMRT Engineering—the Palm Monorail is fully automatic and seemingly self-driving.

Despite state-of-the-art driverless technology, full-time attendants from SMRT will be onboard during hours of operation to assist users and answer questions. In fact, the system is safe enough to have already received safety certificates from Dubai’s Road & Transit Authority (RTA).  

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“RTA Safety Regulation and Planning Department has been working closely with Nakheel and SMRT since the early stages of the project to ensure that the safety of the railway is in line with good, internationally recognized practice and standards,” explained Abdul Mohsen Ibrahim Younes, CEO of the RTA’s sector on strategy & corporate governance.
 
“RTA’s stringent assessments involved design reviews, site inspections, witnessing of tests, emergency exercises and audits throughout the life of the project. RTA will also continue to monitor the safe operation of the railway through regular audits,” added Younes.

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