Transport Plans agreed for Dubai’s skyborne transport system By Neil Halligan October 15, 2024, 11:02 AM uskytransport Dubai's ambitious smart mobility strategy is poised to become a reality, hopefully easing traffic congestion ‘Suspended transport project’ Pods like cable cars Hope to ease road congestion Dubai’s latest transport initiative aims to move people around the city at speeds of up to 120 kilometres an hour, with the intention of automating a quarter of all trips by 2030 and removing thousands of cars from the roads in the process. Plans for Dubai’s Suspended Transport Systems Project were approved earlier this month by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai. Sheikh Hamdan said the project would be central to the emirate’s smart mobility strategy and a crucial element in tackling Dubai’s congested roads. The 65km suspended transport system will consist of three routes: the Umm Suqeim route, a 26km line with 16 stations; the 24km Dubai Creek route, with 11 stations, focused on tourism and passenger transport; and the 15km Zabeel route, with 19 stations. The new systems should increase the number of trips via public transport to 26 percent by 2030, the UAE state news agency Wam said. Suspended transport systems, despite being comparatively lower in cost than other forms of urban rail transport, are not common worldwide, with only ten in operation. Hafeet Rail secures $1.5bn loan for UAE-Oman rail link Riyadh signs off billions to improve road safety Coming soon to a Dubai venue near you – traffic jams The Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, at 15.2km, is currently the world’s longest urban monorail. It travels above the city on a single beam and has a maximum speed of 65km/h. The H-Bahn at Dortmund University and Dusseldorf Airport in Germany is a driverless passenger system that operates on a double-track system and travels at speeds of around 30km/h. One of the potential operators for such a suspended system in Dubai is uSky Transport, whose Skypods operate on a string rail system, where electric pods travel along a beam or truss, using steel wheels. It has two test tracks built in Sharjah, and uSky Transport says its skypods could carry up to 25 people at a speed of between 110km/h and 120km/h. CEO Oleg Zaretskiy said if uSky was awarded the contract, it could take five to seven years to complete, at a cost that is “two if not three times cheaper than a monorail”. “We don’t need large amounts of concrete. We use a lot less materials than what’s required for metro or light rail,” he told AGBI. If the Skypod system has 3,000 to 4,000 passengers an hour, it will remove up to 2,000 cars from the roads, Zaretskiy said. Other types of suspended transport systems, as found in China, Germany and Japan, do not have the speed of a Skypod or are more expensive, he said. “Skypod has wheels and they travel on steel cable rails, which is why we are quick and very energy efficient,” he said. The company is also in talks with other countries, including India and Indonesia. “We have a very good solution for developing countries, where the old transportation challenges are even sharper and more challenging, because the cost of construction of a normal metro can be $100 million per kilometre,” he said. Suspended travel operators target Dubai Dubai has explored suspended transport technology with several companies in recent years. In addition to uSky Transport, operators whose systems have been looked at have included: The British company Beemcar. Its system operates autonomous pods travelling on elevated tracks, described as a cross between a monorail and a ski lift Zhong Tang Sky Railway Group of China. It has a system similar to a monorail, using lithium battery-powered carriages that are suspended five metres in the air under a fixed, box-girder track. Its proposed system for Dubai is already in operation, in Chengdu, China The French transport company MND. It has developed Cabline, a driverless transport system that operates self-propelled cabins moving along ropes at speeds of up to 45km/h. SkyTran of the US. It operates as a high-speed, elevated personal rapid transit system using magnetic levitation technology and two-person pods