Thumbs up for the Metro

A visit to Deira was in the diary this morning and I decided to go by Metro.

It's not a novelty for me, I've used the equivalent in other cities all my life but I can understand the excitement for people who haven't experienced it.

For me it works if it gets me from A to B conveniently, easily, comfortably and gives value for money.

Credit where credit's due, the Metro ticked all the boxes.

I was also going to Mall of theEmirates so that solved one of the potential problems, getting to and parking at a station. I parked at MoE and walked through the mall to the station. I was only going to be a couple of hours so the parking was free.

In the station the ticket counter was closed but a staff member, an Emirati lady, was on hand and directed me to the Information counter, which was issuing tickets.

The current ten minutes between trains isn't too bad and I waited only a couple of minutes. Train wasn't crowded, they're clean, modern and comfortable;



The big plus is sailing along SZR relaxing and watching the motorists. Not jammed at 10am but the Defence and Trade Centre roundabouts, and of course the city itself, were very busy. The Metro is a hell of a lot less stressful.



The ride isn't the roller coaster the track suggests it will be, in fact you're hardly aware of all the ups and downs.

I forgot to time it but I guess I was in to Union/Ittihad Station in about twenty minutes. Much less than in the car, no parking problems and much more relaxing than driving.

Coming back, again the ticket office was closed - is that a cost-cutting measure I wonder? I was directed to the ticket machines, by an Emirati male staff member, who talked me through the steps. Actually it's easy enough and the how-to-use information is clear and good.

A couple of other ticks - the trains have a visual and voice information system which tells you the name of the next station, the information signage at the stations is clear, the stations have good clear local area maps - or at least there's one at Union Station so I assume the others also have them.

The staff were on hand and helpful, and it was interesting to see Emiratis in such non-executive positions, which goes against the general view of the jobs they will do.

A problem I can see in future when all the stations are open is the time a journey will take. The stations are very close together - I took this shot as we pulled into one station and the previous, currently not open, station is very close:



But that aside, it works very well and it'll certainly be my preferred transport if it goes where I need to go.

I have visitors coming in to T3 and I'd be tempted to meet them and bring them back on the Metro rather than driving - but bizarrely you can't take luggage onto the train. There's not a lot of point having a train servicing an airport if luggage isn't allowed on it.

So, there are a few things to be looked at but overall they seem to have done well.