SERCO is to continue operating and maintaining the 75km Dubai metro network until at least September 2019 after signing a five-year contract extension with Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

DUBAI Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has reportedly finalised plans for the extension of its two existing driverless metro lines with the aim of completing both projects by 2020.

DUBAI Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) signed a Dirhams 105m ($US 28.6m) contract with Serco, Britain, on September 14 for the operation of the Al Sufouh Tramway.

Richard Bowker, senior advisor at EC Harris and former CEO of Etihad Rail, UAE, tells Keith Barrow how Gulf States are rising to the challenge of building an interoperable regional network from the ground up.

THE first two of seven locomotives ordered by Etihad Rail from EMD arrived today at Mussafah Port in the United Arab Emirates. The locomotives follow Etihad Rail's first covered hopper wagons supplied by CSR, China, which arrived in December 2012.

THE first batch out of 240 wagons being supplied by CSR, China, to Etihad Rail has arrived in Abu Dhabi's port of Mina Zayed.

ETIHAD Rail, the developer of the UAE's planned 1200km national rail network, has issued invitations to tender for the first three contracts for the second phase of the project.

ETIHAD Rail chairman HE Nasser Al Sowaidi and HE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of an intermodal rail terminal at Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates.

Contracts have been awarded and construction is underway on the United Arab Emirates' inaugural railway line. Kevin Smith looks at the current state of play for the country's planned 1200km network.