The Dubai Metro has a fault rate of one single fault per four million kilometers and one fault in one metro car every 800,000km, placing it amongst the highest safety standards for modern trains in the world, the executive director of the Roads and Transport Authority said on Saturday.
Speaking during a tour of the Control Centre and Trains Maintenance and Cleaning Workshop in the Jebel Ali Depot, Mattar Al Tayer said that the Dubai Metro’s safety record was ‘excellent when measured by the standards of modern trains’ faults worldwide’.
He added that the decision to provide the highest safety and security levels in the Metro was part of the RTA’s vision of providing safe and smooth transport for all commuters.
During the tour, Al Tayer was briefed by Adnan Al Hammadi, the CEO of the Rail Agency, about the work mechanisms adopted by the Jebel Ali Depot which acts as a standby control centre for operating the metro in case of any failure in the Al Rashidiya Control Centre.
“The Dubai Metro has three depots for maintaining and cleaning the trains; two for the Red Line at Al Rashidiya and Jebel Ali and one for the Green Line at Al Qusais. It also has two Metro Operation Control Centres; one at Jebel Ali (as contingency control centre) and the other is the Main Control Centre at Al Rashidiya; which acts as a watchdog for the movement of trains throughout the day to ensure the safety of consumers,” Al Tayer said.
Spanning an area of 110,000m2, the depot has the capacity to house 40 trains and has a workshop that carries out the internal cleaning of 20 trains and the body washing of eight trains a day. This workshop is also fitted out with gantry cranes and sophisticated electronic systems that enable maintenance work to be carried out on more than one train at a time.
Operation tests are conducted on a regular basis for all the facilities of the depot to ensure that they meet up to the required operational readiness, Al Tayer added.