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Etihad Rail awards passenger links

28 June 2023

Etihad Rail has awarded the design and build of passenger rail links for the UAE’s national rail network.

The local National Projects Construction (NPC) has been awarded the work for the rail links connecting to stations in Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) City in Abu Dhabi and Expo City in Dubai. There are 9 kilometres of line to be built in Dubai and 13km in Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Rail has also invited companies to bid for the construction of three major stations and four minor stations. The three major stations will be in MBZ City, Expo City Dubai and Fujairah. Prospective bidders include Fibrex Construction Group, Grankraft, Target Engineering Construction Company and Trojan General Contracting, all local; Dogus and Nurol, both Turkish; and France’s Vinci.

The passenger service was announced in December 2021. It will connect 11 cities and regions in the UAE, from Al-Sila in the west to Fujairah in the east. Etihad Rail’s passenger services will use the track and infrastructure of the UAE’s freight rail network that was inaugurated in February 2023.

Trains will run at a speed of 200 km/h, allowing passengers to travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in 50 minutes, and from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah in 100 minutes. By 2030, the number of passengers is expected to reach more than 36.5 million annually.

Etihad Rail says the trains will reduce commuting times by 30-40 per cent compared with other modes of transport.

In February, Shandong-based rolling stock manufacturer CRRC Qingdao Sifang signed a contract to supply diesel multiple unit passenger (DMU) trains for the UAE’s national rail network. 

The supply contract includes three DMU passenger trains, a purchase option for a maximum of 20 trains, and maintenance service for all trains for 15 years.

The trains are set to be put into use in 2025. The units will have first-class and second-class seats, family zones, WiFi service and air-conditioning.

In June last year, Spain’s Caf Group was awarded an AED1.2bn ($327m) contract to provide passenger trains for Etihad Rail.

Caf will design, manufacture, supply and maintain the passenger trains. Each train will have a seating capacity of over 400 passengers.

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Colin Foreman

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