Serco signs six-year tram operations contract with RTA
Dubai Metro operator signs $28m contract; Alstom-Besix signs 13-year maintenance contract
Workers on the Dubai Tramway
Serco has been awarded a 75-month operations contract for the new Dubai Tram, after a contract was signed with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Serco has been operating the Dubai Metro since the rail service famously commenced operations on 9/9/2009.
Starting August 2013, the more than six year contract includes a 15 month preparations for operation period, covering the recruitment and training of employees, followed by five years of operation.
The contract was worth in total $28.6 million (Dhs105m.)
Meanwhile the project contractor (Alstom-Besix consortium) will take on the maintenance of the project for 13 years, which can be extended for additional five years.
The agreement was signed for the RTA by HE Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of RTA and for Serco by David Campbell, CEO of Serco for Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Al Tayer reaffirmed RTA’s commitment to boosting the profile of Dubai as a modern metropolis, saying that the contract was awarded to Serco following a tender process in which a number of international companies participated.
“As per the contract, the company will provide operation services for all assets of the tram system, and offer transit services to users at high-class standards tailored to the daily changes, besides protecting RTA’s assets, and operating the revenue system.”
The trams will arrive in Dubai in December, when RTA will commission trial tests on the test track and these tests will continue until the official launch of the tram service in November 2014.
The tram is expected to carry about 27,000 riders per day at the start of operations in 2014, and this number is projected to rise to 66,000 passengers per day by 2020.
