I'm Back! And the Metro is open!

My faithful reader(s?) may have noticed a slight drop off in Dubai Sans Auto blog posts of late. I have never been a consistent poster, but 3 months is a bit of a stretch, so I suppose I owe an explanation. Lately the ‘Dubai’ has been taken out of Dubai Sans Auto. Due to the recent financial… unpleasantness, opportunities for gainful local employment are growing rare for a hard working engineer. Long story short, I was shipped off to jolly olde England for a few months of chargeable time. Do not be alarmed though, rest assured dear reader(s?) as I am Sans Auto Sans Frontiers (i.e. I rode in London)!

I know what you are thinking, I totally bagged on cycling through the summer in Dubai even though I made grand pronouncements about riding all year, but honestly, it wasn’t my decision. Not that I minded being able to run and ride without fear of heat stroke.

I was actually back in Dubai as of late August (and rode in the 44 degree heat), but didn’t manage to post until now. In my defence, I was really busy (and or lazy), and I was only here for two weeks before heading off again (this time on holiday). But now that I am safely ensconced back in Dubai’s hot and humid womb (and less busy), I plan to be like the RTA and ‘Unleash’ a series of stupendous posts.

First of all, let’s pick some of the low hanging fruit:

Metro! Holy moley, it’s actually open! Well, sort of. For one thing, it didn’t actually open on 09-09-09. That really irked me, as I flew out of Dubai on 10-09-09 at 12:30 AM to go on holiday. Here I was thinking I was going to get to ride it to work on the 9th, and BAM! The RTA unleashes a worm into my proverbial celebratory apple. I entered the golden ticket contest, but to no avail. So at 9:09 PM on 09-09-09 I was staring out my window at the celebratory fireworks in the distance, being transported nowhere.

Second gripe, they didn’t open all the stations, and the ones they did open don’t necessarily seem to make much sense. They obviously targeted certain stations to finish on time, so it is rather curious that not a single one was adjacent to the marina which is probably the densest concentration of housing within walking distance to a station.

Third gripe, their information management leaves something to be desired. Up until right before the launch there was scarcely any information about riding the metro available on their website. To find out about fares, zones, timetables, etc one had to search the newspapers for information! Even now, the RTA website doesn’t include the individual feeder bus maps, which by the way are the most unprofessional looking maps I have ever seen. I could do better with Microsoft Paint (which is what it appears they were done in).

I am really having difficulty seeing the RTA’s thinking here (RE website/maps/graphics). If you look in the stations (or even close to the stations) they have really well designed maps and signage, why didn’t they extend that content (and level of design) to their website? I can forgive construction delays and first week delays due to bugs in the system, but they had all the time in the world to come up with a clear and coherent website and content for it. Why did they spend big bucks hiring Satchi and Satchi and not have them make over all of their graphics and info?

Despite the gripes, I was really looking forward to trying out the metro, and rode it to work as soon as I returned to Dubai from holiday. I’ve now ridden it several times, and I have to say I am quite impressed with the stations and how smoothly everything seems to be running (in an inadvertent stroke of luck I managed to miss out on the opening week teething problems).

For my first ride I set off from home and headed to my nearest feeder bus stop, which is a mere 4 minute walk from my front door. I knew approximately where it was supposed to be from the craptastic (looking) map for the F13A route, and I honed in on the exact location by looking out my living room window (we are on the 26th floor) and seeing the bus stop to pick someone up. Upon arriving at the stop I noted there was no sign, but it seems the RTA is experimenting with bus stop sculpture in lieu of signage – my stop is called red hairy moustache shovel tongue man. Dude is totally stoned…

Mr. Moustache bus stop

The morning wasn’t TOO hot, but rather humid. I did start to glisten, but didn’t reach anywhere near even the middle of the ‘MOIST’ scale. Luckily, there is quite a bit of shade near the stop, so it was a fairly pleasant wait. In any case, I only waited 5 minutes for the bus, which arrived nearly empty.

The bus took 13 minutes to reach the financial center station, and that was after just missing several lights. I can’t wait for my local ‘Burj Dubai’ stop to open, as the bus shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. The buses are quite nice and surprise, surprise, the ‘next stop’ screens actually operate correctly! Perhaps the RTA is reading my blog.

Interior of feeder bus with funcioning 'next stop' screen!

Upon arriving it was a short walk to the station, up several escalators, through the gates and up another escalator to the platform. I heard my train being called as I arrived, so I booked it up the escalator and ran onto the train… only to have it sit there for a minute and a half! Soon I discovered this was standard procedure at each stop. Anywhere from one minute 10 to one minute 30 seconds dwell time at each station. I seriously hope this is going to be phased out when the whole line becomes operational because it will easily add 30 minutes to the full trip time which is insane. A dwell time of 10 seconds would be more appropriate, especially for the number of people using the service (not many, there were about 25 people on my train).

Morning commute = empty train

In any case, the train finally pulled away and we hummed along the tracks without incident. The ride is nice and smooth and you can’t beat the view! I only went two stops, so the whole journey took eight and a half minutes. It’s the only time I wished I lived on the other end of town, so I could get a longer ride in. The trains are well appointed and comfortable to ride in. I could do without the background music though.

Upon arriving at Burjuman (Khalid Bin Waleed) station, I made my way above ground and trekked down to my office. Total travel time door to door was 44 minutes. Not too shabby! As a comparison, it usually takes between 20 and 25 min to ride to work, plus 10 min to walk upstairs and change. 10 min extra to arrive non-sweaty is not huge price to pay. Not that I will totally give up on cycling to work, but it is nice to finally have an alternate option!

The stations themselves (at least the two I have seen) are quite spectacular. This is one area where they definitely have everyone else beat - except perhaps Moscow. Though they may even surpass Moscow, check out this chandelier at the Burjuman (Kalid Bin Waleed) station:

The Cosmic Jellyfish chandelier

For the trip home I decided to test plan B, which is metro + folding bike! I had left my Brompton at work while I was on holiday so a colleague could use it for a test ride before deciding to buy one himself, so it was ready and waiting for my ride home.

The Brompton seriously sped up the commute. I even rode it the short distance from the office to the metro saving a couple of minutes. Again, my train arrived just as I was entering the station – there must have been some good karma coming my way after my months of bike commuting. The train was much more crowded than it was during my morning commute; plenty of room to stand, but no seats.

Plenty of room for the trusty Brompton

Commute home is slightly more packed. Check out the 4 posted hand hold!

Upon arriving at financial center station I unfolded and peddled off towards home. The ride only took 11 minutes, but I had decided to do it in my work clothes to see how I scored on the MOIST index. It was still fairly steamy, though no where near mid summer temperatures. I did sweat quite a bit – but not full cycle to work sweatiness. I managed to go out to dinner later in the same outfit without the missus even noticing – i.e. I didn’t stink.

Total travel time for Plan B? 29 minutes! That means the folding bike + Metro is on par with or (slightly) better than riding the whole way (when changing from bike clothes into work clothes is included in the time)! It should be even faster and even less sweaty when the Burj Dubai station opens. I could easily pop down there in 5 minutes on the bike; which in all but the hottest of weather won’t make me sweat horribly.

There is also a plan C, which is riding to the station on a normal bike and locking it up. This option will be slightly longer since I’ll have to walk from the station to the office, but then again, I won’t have to lug the Brompton around either.

So basically I now have a whole range of options for commuting. If I want to get around town, I’ll be taking my Brompton with me, since the feeder bus service is still a bit spotty (and subject to traffic). For getting to work, I’ll either still ride, or ride to the station and park the bike + metro. If I am planning on running home, I’ll catch the feeder bus + metro.

I am totally mobile, and LOVING it!