It was still over a year from opening, but five years ago this month, the Dubai Metro was effectively complete.
After three years working round the clock, it was announced that the 52-kilometre Red Line now ran as a continuous stretch after the viaduct from Al Rashidya to Jebel Ali was finished three days ahead of schedule.
As project manager Paul Anderson put it at the time: “This means you could walk the entire length of it from one end to the other without coming across gaps.”
At least 25,000 people were involved in building the Metro, which eventually opened at nine minutes past nine on the ninth day of the ninth month in 2009.
Now 75km long, it is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest fully automated metro system.
* James Langton
