Dubai Eye 103.8’s Post

Transcript

Joining us in the studio now, Roger Crookshank from Atkins realise the big engineering company. Morning Roger, good morning. Your reaction to this? Well, it's a it's a big project and it's a big undertaking, but you know, it's part of the RT's plans to improve transportation for the city is going to solve the traffic. It's going to help, obviously it's moving into newer areas of the city as well as serving international city that has been established for some time. So yes, the hope is that it will reach into those areas and provide a choice other than the car. OK, so let let's talk about specifically what problem this will solve. We've solved. We've got 2 lines already. This is going to be a new one. From your perspective, if we're going to be looking at a map of Dubai, where's this one going to go? And which bits of the transportation puzzle does it solve? So what? Does is it's a kind of why sheep in the sense that it links in with the Red Line and the Green Line and then it comes together and an interchange at International City and then it goes on to academic city. So the opportunity is for sort of areas to the east of the city to now have a strong public transport. So students in academic city, all of those who work and live in International City and of course the great prospect of Metro being ended by Creek. Barber the up and coming area of Dubai next to the Creek good stuff. Now one area it doesn't go to is the new residential area in the al Qaeda corridor, which has also got, I don't know hundreds of thousands of people living there and and we'll have more in the next 1020 years or so. But that area isn't covered is it Roger? It doesn't for now but as I kind of highlighted previously Dubai has a plan 2040 and beyond the Blue Line there are considerations for other. Real and other public transport lines across Dubai and the Al Kudra corridor is one that is, I know, being considered because yes, there are a lot of areas. It's an area I live in and you know, car ownership is very high in that area. So the RT and others are looking at public transport opportunities for that area. Can we talk about the economics? 20 billion dirhams, a lot of money, 3 contracting companies have got it, a Turkish and Chinese. Clearly the RTA is well versed in project finance and how to finance these projects, but do are they economically viable in their own right, these metro projects? So again, most governments around the world provide the funding of the basic requirements around public transport. But as has been reported and many times by Oxford Economics and others. General return on the transportation here in Dubai is like a, a ratio of one and three, one in four. So for every dollar that's invested into infrastructure like a metro, there's 3 to $4.00 actually comes back through the, the whole kind of economy around how people travel, it's proximity to land and land values rising. And generally the brand, I mean, Dubai Metro now has its own strong brand. It's on all of those kind of adverts that are out there. So the RT and the city of Dubai. Or recouping through other means. So they're seeing that money come back so we could be through other means. But but often these metros as a standalone business, if you if you throw in the CapEx and the OpEx and the land that they're on, I'm told it's quite often difficult to make a a cold hard business case for for that with all those three costs three weeks and up objects. Yeah, we analyze these things all the time I mean it's also worth highlighting that as people just sit in their cars every day, day in day out, there are a number of times and hours, you know just. Paint, you know, wasted time. So that needs to be brought into perspective. So yes, there is the out turn on and the initial cost, but for the government divide, they've obviously seen public transport as a way of solving a number of key issues and and allowing, you know, the economy to recycle. What about last mile, Roger? It's always a challenge in a in a city with extreme weather and for a few months a year, Dubai does have extreme heat in the way that Montreal has extreme cold a few months of the year and that does make last mile. Difficult last mile typically is walking if you're in the the Moscow metro that's what you do or the New York metro tricky here though, yes it is no doubt but certainly between April and sort of September either humidity or high heat. But what the the RT and others are doing is they are trying to spread what we would call the context planning of a station. So do not just beyond the front door but beyond 500 meters and more so that there is shading and and ways of actually getting people to and from the metro and. We're comfortably and at the same time providing laybys and facilities for taxis and buses so that the connections can be made. And of course, in appropriate areas, E scooters, cycling and other things are also provided. Well, I'm glad you mentioned E scooters because in some ways I think they're just brilliant things. They're relatively cheap, they're environmentally friendly. For last mile, they're perfect, but they don't play nicely with cars on the roads and they don't play nicely with pedestrians. On the pavements. So I'm struggling to see how we get this fabulous technology to work without building an entire third network of scooter or bike lanes, which would have its own challenges. So look, this is being studied and indeed we are supporting the RT around some of this at the moment. So yeah, we are carefully looking at how we can integrate E scooter cycling and other kind of facilities into that harder infrastructure without as you see having layers of it on top. However, at the same time. You know, cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, obviously I've spent significant amounts on that and the cultures has ended up being more psycho focused. So I think there is a seriousness around seeing how we can get alternatives to be able to get people to and from their homes or a shop without obviously jumping in their car. What about more passive measures to manage the traffic, just nudging us into different behaviors. For example, Tom, are you picked up on one earlier this week, didn't you on the the 611? Banning trucks at certain times. It was the rush hour, evening rush hour, wasn't it was certain areas. Towards Sharjah on the Emirates Rd. just another sort of proactive initiative to get trucks off the road, but but not involving a major engineering span of 20 billion dirhams. What role do things like this play? And for example, I'm going to throw in as well all the research that the RTA has done about the impact of flexible working or four day week working on, on the traffic. And their studies say it would make a very significant positive impact on the traffic. Take these measures as a whole, if you would. Yeah. So these are all under consideration at the moment. There are various studies that are going on, various analytics that are happening. Yes, I think there is proven that with the right kind of thought around when and where travel should happen, then we can have some key benefit. I think most importantly though is perhaps to involve stakeholders appropriately. Obviously people make a living out of driving the lorry. So there's just a sort of a communication piece perhaps around what it is for them, what it benefits. The name, how they might need to change some of the way that they work. But clearly now that Dubai is the way it is, just like London, Paris, NY and others, there's a string of additional, as you say, passive measures that need to be put in place to, to, to do the whole block. And I think it is fair to say that I, I believe that people would be willing to think about a four day week, probably work a little bit harder for perhaps a little bit more of rest, but there's a balance to be struck. We're an international city and we're dealing with other countries and other economies. Just very quickly before we let you go, lots of messages coming in on this one, Mariam writes in. Will it link up with the new Etihad Rail? Rohit says. What about public transport between Sharjah and Dubai? So the blue line and what's with the, the, the red line? There are links that will happen close to and the the new Etihad Rail when it when it happens. And indeed, as we've just been talking about, there are a number of. Studies and opportunities being looked at Charger and by are now working. I would say much, much closer together to to resolve these challenges. Roger, great to talk to you. Appreciate you getting up early on the last Friday before Christmas, but I know it was your choice, wasn't there. Your team didn't make you do it. You made your team come in with you. No problem. Thanks Roger. Crookshanks Atkins realize on the new 20 billion dirham metro line.