Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has signed a deal with China-based Zhong Tang Sky Railway Group to construct a suspended railway within the city.
The memorandum of understanding will bring Dubai closer to its goal of dramatically increasing public transportation infrastructure – by 2030, RTA wants 26% of all journeys to be made via public transport.
Further, a recently released 2040 master plan has laid out intentions to have half of the population to live within 800-metres of public transport.
Commenting on the deal, Abdul Mohsen Ibrahim Youne, CEO of RTA’s Rail Agency, said: “Realising this objective requires developing advanced futuristic transport systems and improving the sustainable transport network in Dubai to encourage people and visitors to use public transport.”
Zhong Tang has been testing its so-called sky-train since 2016.
The lithium battery-powered carriages are suspended five metres in the air under a fixed, box-girder track, similar to a monorail.
The aim for these sky trains is to accelerate the mobility of people while also curbing the city’s traffic congestion problem.
Younes said Dubai wants to be ranked “number one” in business and liveability and to be the world’s most “futuristic” city by 2030.
He added that Dubai has signed agreements with a variety of specialist companies in the development of suspended transport systems – including BeemCar, a UK-based sky-pod company that has been developing a personal rapid transport system for Dubai since 2019 – in a bid to identify the technologies used in this kind of mass transit.
He said: “We will be able to screen and obtain the best technologies and select the best systems for implementation in Dubai.”
Image: Jag_cz/Shutterstock
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