Dubai Airport Metro Service
2 Dubai Airport metro stations built quite close to each other on the Red Line serve hundreds of thousands of passengers and employees every day at Dubai Airport. One of the Metro stations serves passengers at Terminal 1 while the other one caters to commuters at Terminal 3.
Operating Hours
Metro Trains run roughly every 10 minutes from Terminals 1 and 3. Services start 5.50am (5.30am on Thursday), and stop at midnight (1am on Thursday/Friday). During Ramadan, Saturday to Thursday from 6am to midnight and Friday 2pm to midnight. Please be aware that there is no Dubai Metro service on Friday mornings and only starts at 1pm.
There are just two metro lines which makes the network simple to use even for people who have not used the metro system in Dubai before. Most metro stations have connecting buses and taxi ranks for onward travel. Most major hotels and tourist destinations are relatively close to a metro station.
The distance between the two stations is around 700 metres. Airport passengers can use these metro stations to directly access the terminal buildings without having to endure the heat outside. Air-conditioned walkways equipped with escalators and elevators have been built to link the arrival and departures lounges of the terminal buildings with the dubai metro stations.
Dubai Metro Ticket Information
The Nol card in Dubai is a system which the RTA (Roads & Transport Authority) has introduced to enable passengers to pay for the use of various types of public transport in Dubai with the use of one single card.
The word Nol means “fare” or “cost of public transport fees” in Arabic and can currently be used to pay for the use of the Dubai Metro, Dubai Buses, Dubai Water Buses and Paid Parking Meters in Dubai.
There are various different Nol cards to choose from and our dedicated section on the Dubai Nol Card explains everything you need to know about this hassle free and convenient way to travel within Dubai.
Dubai Metro Information
The Metro is a $7.6 billion automated metro system with on-board Wi-Fi signals that was inaugurated on September 9th 2009 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
A total of 51 trains will eventually travel between 29 stations on the Red Line with a frequency of one every 3.45 minutes during peak times and 7.00 minutes during off-peak hours. The second section of the network, the Green Line opened in 2011. To view all of the current stations which are open on the Dubai Metro use the interactive map above and hover over each of the dubai metro station icons for further information. Stations shown with a red icon are open and those shown with a black icon are currently still closed.
The Metro project has been completed in a record-breaking time of less than four years since Sheikh Mohammed laid the foundation stone of the project on March 21, 2006.
The 21 Red Line stations currently in operation are Rashidiya, Emirates Station, GGICO station (Al Garhoud), Terminal 3 Dubai International Airport, Terminal 1 Dubai Airport, Deira city centre, Al Rigga, Union Square, Khalid bin Al Waleed, Al Karama, Al Jafiliya, Dubai World Trade Centre, Emirates Towers, Financial Centre, Burj Khalifa, Noor Islamic, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Marina, Nakheel Harbour and Towers, Ibn Battuta,
Initailly 10 stations were opened due to factors such as population density in the area served by each station, the presence of commercial activities, the presence of government bodies, links with multi-storey car parks, links with other means of transport such as buses and water transport, the technical readiness of the station and the anticipated number of passengers who will use each station.
The opening of Rashidiya Station was important because it is the starting point of the Red Line on the east side of the city, and because it houses a multi-storey car park for 2,750 vehicles and serves several highly populated areas such as Rashidiya, Mirdif, Al Mizhar, Al Warqa and Nad Al Hummar.
The Terminal 3 Station at Dubai Airport serves passengers arriving and departing, while City Centre, Al Rigga and Khalid bin Al Waleed stations will serve highly populated areas and commercial centres, with high traffic flows.
Union Station serves the central business district along with several key government organisations. The station is located close to a major bus station and many marine transport stations on Dubai Creek, making it a multi-modal station.
The Jafiliya Station serves the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department, Dubai Police Station and the new Etisalat building.The opening of this station was designed to reduce the pressure on roads and parking facilities for the large number of people who require these services regularly
The Financial Centre Station serves the business and financial district of Dubai and also provides connections to several five-star hotels on Sheikh Zayed Road.
The Mall of the Emirates Station serves one of the largest malls in Dubai, and will also serve the Al Barsha area. The Nakheel Harbour and Tower Station includes the second multi-storey car park on the Red Line on the West side of the city, which can accommodate up to 3,000 vehicles.
The fares are among the cheapest worldwide and as an example the fare of a trip from Rashidiya to Jebel Ali is only Dh5.80.
More than 700 feeder buses have been deployed to serve these stations on well-planned and coordinated routes. These buses have route numbers beginning with the letter F, and are visible to all passengers waiting to use them for connection to the nearest Metro station. Visit our page dedicated to buses in Dubai to find out more about each of the Dubai bus routes which are available.
Dubai Metro’s Green Line runs from Dubai International Airport Free Zone to Dubai Health Care City. The length of the network has almost doubled since it was first planned due to a series of extensions. Without ruling out further extensions, the key criteria for the introduction of stations is the number of people and institutions a new station can cover.
Dubai Metro Ramadan Timings
During Ramadan, The Dubai Metro will run from Saturday to Thursday between 6.00am and midnight, while on Friday the service will be available from 2.00pm to midnight.
After Ramadan, the Metro in Dubai will run from Saturday to Thursday between 6.00am and 11.00pm, while on Friday the trains will operate from 2.00pm to midnight.
The timings will be reviewed after three months and could be extended.
Further Information on the Dubai Train Service
The Dubai metro service has been designed to run at 3.5 minute intervals during peak hours and 7 minute intervals during off peak hours with a capacity of nearly 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
The Red Line currently stretches over a distance of 51km with stations located on average every 1.5km. On eventual completion of the Dubai metro Green line, the linear track length will rise to 75km and the network will consist of 47 stations including 9 of which will be underground.
The Dubai metro will ultimately carry 27,000 passengers every hour which represents 355 million passengers per year once the two lines are fully operational with an estimated 600 million annual passenger capacity by 2020.
The metro in Dubai runs at a maximum speed of 90km per hour, with a final frequency target set at every 3.45 minutes during peak hours and every 7 minutes off peak. In the initial stages 11 trains out of an overall fleet of 62 were operational on the Red Line.
The official Dubai Metro operating hours are from 6am until 12 midnight, the remaining hours are allocated to maintenance of both the trains and the track.
The Red Line has established two main Park and Ride stations offering free parking for around 2,800 cars at the Rashidiya station in Deira and for approximately 2,000 cars beside the Jumeirah Islands station toward Jebel Ali. The residential area within the Rashidiya area is popular with many people choosing to live in the likes of Garhoud, Mirdif, Al Warqa and Mushrif but that work in the southerly Tecom zones and beyond
The Dubai metro Red Line runs from Dubai Airport through downtown, across the Dubai Creek and along the lengthy Sheik Zayed Road adjacent to the luxurious new high-rise towers.
The Green Line is expected to open over the next year, expanding the system to 47 stations along 46 miles of railway.
Only 5% of Dubai residents currently use public transportation, but authorities are hoping to raise that number to 20% by keeping regular fares between 50 cents and $1.50, the same as the bus system.
The Red Line has separate compartments for first class passengers and for women. It also has wireless Internet service on every train. There are 3 classes of carriage, first class (with wide leather seats and Wi-Fi Internet access), standard class, and a carriage for women and children.
the completed 300km (186-mile) metro system will have four lines in total: the Red Line, the Green Line, the Purple Line running between the existing airport and the planned airport at Jebel Ali and the Blue Line, which will stretch from Emirates Road to the airports.
Each five-car train has a separate compartment reserved for women and children, much like the Arab world’s only other metro in Cairo. Women will be able to sit in other cars as well.
Every Dubai train will reserve the front for big spenders willing to pay more for leather seats in the system’s “Gold Class” section. Rides start at 1.8 dirhams, or about 50 U.S. cents. A gold-class trip on the length of the system costs up to 13 dirhams, or $3.55, one-way.
The Union Square Station spanning 25,000 square metres is the worlds largest and the metro in Dubai has been described as one of the world’s most visually appealing and most scenic, with bird’s eye views of Dubai city.
The Metro will bring many benefits to not just tourists but to all who live and work there by heavily reducing commuter times, freeing the roads from congestion, reducing pollution, and providing the lower-paid with freedom of movement during leisure hours.
The integrated transportation system encompassing flyovers, highways, seaports, airports, inter-Emirates buses, Metro-feeder buses, parking facilities, taxis and water-taxis. With the opening of the new rail system, there is no country on earth that can compete with the diversity and capacity of Dubai’s transportation infrastructure.
In 2012, the Metro’s Purple Line is scheduled to be operational. This will link Dubai International Airport with Al Maktoum International Airport, the first phase of which will be completed in 2012.
As a testimony to Dubai’s great achievements, it is ranked the first city in the Middle East and Africa in terms of quality of living in Mercer’s highly recognised 2009 Quality of Living Survey. Moreover, and not surprisingly, it came first in Mercer’s infrastructure survey too.
The Dubai metro system is infact operated by Serco Group, a British contractor whose businesses include running rail networks in England and Australia, providing computer support to the U.S. military, and managing Britain’s nuclear arsenal.
Wi-Fi Internet on the Dubai Metro
du provides a broadband connection on the Dubai Metro via its Wi-Fi service. du, the UAE’s integrated telecom operator has extended its Wi-Fi service which is currently offered in many hotspots around Dubai to the new Dubai Metro line as part of a partnership agreement with the RTA. The wireless broadband connection from du is available both on dubai metro trains and stations.
du’s next generation network offers on-the-move seamless wireless internet connectivity for passengers on the trains and in the stations for the first time in the UAE. The train compartments are connected to the operator’s network using a state of the art WiMAX and 3rd generation network.
The Dubai metro Wi-Fi service is available to any visitor and resident using the Dubai Metro with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as laptop, smart phone or PDA. Customers can select the most suitable way of payment between a credit card or by using du recharge cards which are available throughout the country at du Shops and other authorized outlets. du WiFi offers the best and convenient way to access broadband on the move in Dubai combining the best rates in town and Pay by the Second billing.