GoD’s monorail

Even though only 6% of the population uses public transportation, car-worshipping Dubai unveiled its metro on 09/09/09. However, it may literally go nowhere.

‘Halfway along the route between the city center and the Jebel Ali container port stands a monument to delusions of grandeur that does not bode well for the future of the metro line: The Palm Jumeirah Monorail, which whisks passengers to the man-made island resort of the same name. The monorail also impresses passengers with its air-conditioned stations and fantastic views. It’s just that nobody rides it. The planners forgot to connect it to the rest of the public transport system.’

The last sentence warrants a second reading. The planners forgot to connect it to the rest of the public transport system. So one could say that the land connection to the Palm Jumeirah is as fictive as its destination.

Remember The Simpsons‘s Monorail?

Their doomed monorail was even fashioned with an Escalator to Nowhere. In the background, a magnifying glass sets a skyscraper ablaze. Crash. Tumble. Poof.

Some people envision the metro train as the only public space in which ‘no one is better than anyone else.’ Fair enough. It is indeed possible that outside of the recreational habit known as the mall, people of all classes will most likely rub shoulders on the train.

But GoD’s CEO Sheikh Rashid al-Maktoum, in his usual modesty, calls it an ‘achievement for all Arabs.’ Proof that he’s never watched The Simpsons?

(Images from griffindor.org.uk and Wikipedia.)