Metro: Purple Line Is Latest Addition

The longest driverless light mass transit system in the world, the proposed 76-kilometre Dubai Metro, just got longer by about 50km.

Within five years, city officials hope a new third line, the Purple Line, will transport millions of passengers, families and airport workers between Dubai Inter-national Airport and the proposed Jebel Ali Airport.

The Purple Line will cost an additional Dh10 billion and will be jointly financed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and the Depar-tment of Civil Aviation.

At a packed press conference yesterday, Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the RTA, inked a deal with Stuart L. Wallace, chairman of Parsons Brincker-hoff Middle East Ltd to provide the “initial designs of the Dubai Metro Purple Line''.
Construction should start in March 2009 and last for 45 months.

When completed in 2012, Al Tayer told reporters, passenger travel time between the two airports will be approximately 40 minutes.

The key attraction of the Purple Line will be a faster train.