So, the Dubai Metro celebrated its fifth birthday earlier this month. It struck me as a missed opportunity to have each train set off fireworks from its roof for 24 hours, though that could be distracting for drivers following the Red Line on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Times have certainly changed for public transport. Despite the merciless adage (often attributed to Margaret Thatcher) that “a man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure”, these days every government in the world is seeking to combat the accepted truth that cars are the easiest, best and most impressive way to travel from A to B.
Different countries have had different results, but I’d say the Dubai Metro has pretty much been a success. Roughly 500,000 passengers use the service each day. In my experience, it’s generally on time, clean and sometimes you can get a seat. If that last one sounds like a half-hearted compliment, you’ve obviously never travelled on London’s Underground.
I can only compare the Dubai Metro to other metros I’ve used over the years. So that’s what I’ll do.
I have never known the Dubai Metro to have its high-tech, card-based entry system clogged up by chewing gum, as seemed to happen almost every time I tried to use the stubbornly old-fashioned, coin-based ticket machines in my hometown of Manchester’s metro. One occasion involved a ticket inspector reprimanding me for having no ticket, until I explained the ticket machine/chewing gum interface, which led him to instruct me to leave the carriage at the next station and buy a ticket there. I did, only to find every ticket machine on the platform clogged up with, yup, chewing gum. I got a taxi the rest of the way as the friendly conductor refused to allow me to reboard without a ticket.
I have never collapsed from heat stroke on the Dubai Metro. This is a country where summer temperatures, even in the shade, can reach the mid-40s. In London, however, where a heatwave is declared following three consecutive days of 17 degree-plus temperatures, people drop like flies on the Underground. If they could channel the heat of the Underground system back to the houses above, the UK would never have to worry about foreign energy imports.
I have never seen the window next to me actually fall out of a Dubai Metro train. In fairness, this only happened once and Montreal’s Metro is generally a pleasant enough place to be, if only its trains weren’t so dilapidated.
Paris fares poorly on the appearance and maintenance front, too, but its Metro is often the place where you find the most amazing characters. No other Metro system has introduced me to a man who suggested I travel almost 900 kilometres with him (not on the Metro, obviously) as there’s “a really good reggae night on in Marseille”, and found me agreeing with him, and consequently doing so. I’m not even a massive fan of reggae.
All in all, the Dubai Metro is comparing pretty well. My only complaint was going to be getting fined Dh200 for the unknown-to-me-at-the-time offence of chewing gum. But then I wrote the Manchester section of this piece and figured maybe those high-tech, card-swiping machines are more vulnerable to Wrigley-based attacks than we realise.
cnewbould@thenational.ae