UAE reveals new Etihad Rail passenger station in Fujairah
Announced at the first Global Rail conference in Abu Dhabi, a top official stated that a new passenger station for the Etihad Rail project will be situated in the Sakamkam district of Fujairah. Director of Public Policy and Sustainability at Etihad Rail Adhraa Almansoori said the station will link Fujairah and other areas of the UAE.
The announcement comes after earlier confirmations of another station located at Sharjah University City. These stations are a component of the larger project aiming at connecting eleven UAE cities and areas.
Almansoori added some specifics regarding the project, stressing that the passenger network will make advantage of the same infrastructure as the goods network. Up to 200 km per hour, the passenger trains will move; by 2030, 36 million passengers are expected to be transported yearly. She did not, however, say when passenger services will formally start since further information would be revealed at the suitable moment. Constant talks with manufacturers help to guarantee the passenger locomotives' robustness and environmental impact.
Once whole, the vast 900-kilometer Etihad Rail network will connect all seven emirates and 11 important cities from Ghuweifat in the west to Fujairah in the east. With aspirations for cross-border connections as well, the UAE is the first Gulf government to declare a rail link to adjacent countries. Almansoori underlined at the conference a joint venture between Mubadala, Oman Rail, and Etihad Rail known as Hafit Rail. Named after the Hafit mountain, which crosses the UAE-Oman border, this network will run more than 300 kilometers from the UAE to Sohar Port in Oman. Eventually, passenger services will also be accessible on this line.
To address the future of rail travel, the three-day Global Rail conference gathers more than 150 delegates from all throughout the transportation industry, including ministers, business leaders, and stakeholders. Participants in the event were given a virtual tour of an Etihad Rail passenger train compartment, therefore providing a window into the future travel experience. The leather chairs featured the Etihad Rail logo, and a video simulation shown a trip from the Ghuweifat station.
Originally starting in 2016 with a 264-kilometer track for commodities movement including granulated sulfur, Etihad Rail is among the most awaited projects in the United Arab Emirates . The goods activities had spread the whole 900 kilometers of the network by 2023. With the goods trains able to reach 120 km/h, 30 million tons of goods are expected to be moved yearly by 2030. Two basic kinds of services are supported by the goods network: intermodal services for containerized products and aggregates including sulfur and building materials. Effective freight movement depends on the eleven terminals of the network, which include those at important ports including Ruwais, Khalifa, Jebel Ali, and Fujairah.
The Etihad Rail project still revolves mostly on sustainability. Almansoori underlined that, equivalent to 8.2 million tons of carbon dioxide yearly, the railway sector is expected to lower CO2 emissions from the land transportation sector by 21 percent by 2025. She underlined that maintaining the UAE's natural surroundings has been a top concern for the project since the rail system has to negotiate mountains, salt flats, and deserts among other terrain. The design and building techniques have given great thought to the biodiversity of the area, therefore guaranteeing little disturbance of the flora and animals of the nation.