The firm behind the UAE's first national railway project expects to reveal details of when it will carry its first passengers in the near future, an official has said.
"We are going to announce soon when we are going to be launching passenger transportation through the railway," Etihad Rail commercial executive director Shadi Malak told the MEED Al Gharbia Development Forum.
The project, designed to connect all of the UAE's emirates, will commence freight services in the Western Region by the end of this year. Abu Dhabi and Dubai should be joined by rail by 2017.
"The main question we always get is: When will passengers will be able to travel? Of course now it's mostly about the freight but about 90 per cent of rail costs are for the rails itself and once they are there whether they are used for freight or passengers involve only slight differences in costs," Malak explained.
Sending freight by rail from the UAE to Europe could be a reality by 2018 to 2020, he added.
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