Quasi-Holiday

Financial Center station: one of the planned 3000 security personnel pegged to guard Dubai's metro system.

Successful Du payment and login this time... finally (27-Sep, evening). Then, a very long 7 minutes before I could log in and get my target page to load (28-Sep, morning)--see also wifi no goes....

Evening train on Saturday, a quasi-holiday. Not crowded at all in the station nor on the trains. Friday is much more the busier day. I'm in the gold class which has some Emirati shebab (young guys), a couple of families with a lot of children and a mix of other nationalities. It sort of seems there are too many kids running around in this cabin. I think the 5 and under free shouldn't qualify for this cabin.

<< Burj Bubai?

I tried the feeder bus today from Financial Center station to Dubai Mall. The bus comes quickly--good frequency--but the route to the mall is rather circuitous and the drop off point is not at any mall entrance. One has to first guess which way it is to an entrance and then start hiking. My guess was wrong, so it was a long walk into one car entrance after another before finally finding a walk-in entrance to the Mall.

So, I doubt many shoppers will make use of this means of transport, especially if they know what it entails. It is a workaround measure until the Burj Dubai station opens, but even then will there be any better way to get from station to mall? A tram was originally planned but that seems nowhere in sight.

More Bits & Pieces

Precariously hanging barricades below sign. >>

An earlier post included a write-up on car access to Rashidiya station, but I didn't have any photos to illustrate the post. Now I do, and I will be sending one of these to the RTA as it reveals the car entrance to the parking structure involving cars narrowly avoiding a precariously hanging barrier.

I will also be sending in the funny RTA bus sign which reads Burj Bubai instead of Burj Dubai. Not a big deal, I know, but it's a shame to mangle the name of the cities' proudest landmark.

The previous post details first and last train timings, and it is rather a shame that the final train out of some stations is just after 10 p.m. That means there is little chance of relying on the train to enjoy an evening out without having to rush to make the last train, especially if one has to get a connecting bus first. I would have thought that the publicized 11:00 pm end of service would have meant 11:00 pm for last departure.

Last train approaching Rashidiya station