Driverless trains – Now that’s freaky!

Dubai excels at having the biggest and the best at so many things, and their brand new, state of the art railway line is certainly one of them. Everywhere you drive in Dubai you see the line above you, like a monorail (which it is not) and the glass cocoons which are the stations. You buy your ticket and then make your way through the gate validating your ticket, and come to the platform. You find yourself in a ‘bubble’ with the line on the other side of glass doors. Every 6 minutes a train glides silently into the platform, glass doors open in the bubble and the train, at exactly the right position, you enter, the doors close and off you go. No chance of suicides or people getting on to the stations without paying because there is no access to the lines. We travelled ‘Gold Class’ (1st) and the ride was quite good because we were up high and looked down on the houses. Once in the city area we had wonderful close up views of the skyscrapers , especially the Burj Kailifa, the highest building, a mere 180 storeys. When I think about our poor old Melbourne system with its graffiti ridden trains, MyKi problems, timetable disruptions, safety issues and overcrowding it leaves me in awe. We can do it so badly and yet the Emirates can do it so well.