Metro station opens for Jebel Ali commuters

Metro station at the Jebel Ali Free Zone opened for commuters at sharp 1pm on Friday.

The station is the first to open in Jafza and 27th overall, reported 'Khaleej Times'.

The Jebel Ali station has a handling capacity of 11,000 passengers in each direction, and is expected to attract at least 4,000 more commuters to the already popular metro with a daily ridership of around 175,000.

However, the station is dedicated only for Jafza residents and workers, as the access to outsiders from the south side is blocked.

“The station is open from the north side only, because this station is dedicated for Jafza people only. There is no access to the south side as yet but once the work on roads and ramps are completed outside the station on the south side, we might decide to open the gate on the south side as well,” said

Ramadan Abdullah, Director, Metro operations, Rail Agency, RTA.

This will mean, people living near the station but outside the limits of Jafza and have no access to the free zone will have to go to the next closest station — Ibn Battuta, 8km away.

RTA has started with one feeder bus route, F54, from the station, contrary to the four announced earlier. But the route winds through both the north and south side of Jafza.

Though the opening of the station has added another eight kilometres to the Red Line, the total journey time from Rashidiya to Jebel Ali has increased only from one hour two minutes to one hour nine minutes.

This is made possible by the reduction in stoppage time at each station as well as better frequency of trains.