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Investment
in Arriyadh
comfort of the train. Each station will have its dedicated and shielded
parking lot, allowing travellers to leave their vehicles in security.
Metro stations will also be a stop for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
network. These will also be halts for the regular bus line services,
which will feed passengers to the metro lines, as well as the circular
bus lines that will provide a key augmentation to the movement of
hundreds of thousands of people every day.
The key to the success of the metro system is that all the lines will
be integrated and run from a central control, though four of the lines
will also have their own back-up-control room with single control
room being shared by Lines Four and Six.
A very high degree of automation is being built into the entire
design. The trains themselves will be driverless. However the
security, both operational and of passengers is a priority, with
extensive use of Closed Circuit Television. Passengers will travel
in air-conditioned carriages with separate provision being made for
families and for other travellers. The trains themselves are designed
to give an extremely comfortable ride with technology being used to
smooth out any jerking on braking and acceleration. The carriages
on Line Four to King Khalid International Airport will also be
configured to take the luggage of air travellers. All trains will also be
configured to carry passengers with mobility impairments.
Initially the six lines are to carry a total of 28,500 passengers per
hour operating 18 hours a day. The network however is being built
to expand to meet growing passenger demand and to run 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Initial projections are that up to 23 percent of
people who now use cars to move around the capital will be switching
to the rail system when the trains first start rolling in 2018.
The trains will run at up to 45 kilometers an hour and will have
4G and WIMAX facilities. Each metro line has its own independent
depot facilities – in total 10 such facilities. The lines will interface
with a number of other major initiatives in Arriyadh including the
King Abdullah Financial District, King Abdullah Road, underpasses
under Prince Saad Bin Abdulrahman Al Awal and the bus component
of the King Abdulaziz Project for Public Transport in Arriyadh.
There are also park and ride facilities available at various points on
some of the lines.
Integrated Bus Network
Another part of the project, which is fully-integrated with the
metro, will be the sophisticated, high-speed bus network. This
consists of four discrete services which together will ultimately have
more than 3,000 stops and initially several thousand buses.
The first consists of four routes criss-crossing the city. This part
of the network is a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and will be
served by high frequency and high-speed bus lines using mainly
articulated vehicles. They will all to operate in dedicated traffic lanes
along the streets and highways. The bus-only lanes are to be strictly
monitored. Those who still choose to use their cars for downtown
travel and find themselves stuck in jams will be reminded, every time
a luxury bus sweeps by them along its dedicated lane, that they had a
better travel choice. This service will have 68 stations, many of which
will be part of metro stations, allowing easy interchange between the
two.
It comprises two ring routes stretching for 85 kilometers mainly
along arterial roads and serving high-density population areas. Lines
serving the inner city center will operate within the inner ring road.
Residential areas around the capital are being linked by 18 different
regular bus routes in the third category of services. This will make
up a community bus service serving secondary corridors and feeding
the main transit lines. These services will operate partly on dedicated
bus lanes (BRT) served by standard or articulated buses.
The fourth and final service is made up of the all-important Feeder
Bus Lines for the metro stations. Feeder lines will serve residential
districts and will provide a mixture of fixed lines and demand
responsive services bases operated using smaller vehicles. These
feeder services will be flexible and continuously monitor and react to
customer demand for service.
Although each station is being provided with parking for between
200 and 600 vehicles, the whole integrated transport system has been
configured to persuade the majority of passengers to leave their cars
at home. The ability to board one of the buses traveling regularly
along some 600 kilometers of suburban routes, which will take
travellers swiftly and efficiently to their nearest metro stop, is key to
the whole extraordinary vision that has underpinned the planning
and now the execution of the King Abdulaziz Project for Public
Transport in Arriyadh.
Needless to say, the advanced ticketing systems allow easy
interchange between bus and metro services. In addition, just as the
highly automated metro network is being equipped with sophisticated
control and monitoring systems, so the entire bus network will be
overseen and directed from a central point. Controllers will be able
to see precisely where every vehicle is and have a constant link to
each driver. The feeder service will also offer the latest in customer
demand responsive technology.
In total there will be more than 450 stops and stations and over
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