The plan for a rail network to take passengers between the Emirates has been around for a long time, but finally it is becoming a reality! The Etihad rail system opened on 30th June with trains running between Fujairah and Abu Dhabi but you may be wondering when is Etihad Rail opening in Dubai and can you travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi by train?
The rail network will eventually consist of 10 stations as seen on the map below:
The two stations currently open are shown in green. On September 30th the station in Dubai will open and will be called Dubai Al Yalayis Station. Al Dhaid station in Sharjah will also open on the same date. The other stations are set to open in stages after that.
The rail station in Dubai is located near the Jumeirah Golf Estates community and will eventually link up with the Jumeirah Golf Estates Metro station (which is on the Expo 2020 red line) as a bridge is currently being built to join the 2. This will make it a really convenient way to get to Abu Dhabi using public transport.
The journey from Dubai to Abu Dhabi will take just under an hour. The price of the tickets has not yet been set for that sector but you can currently buy tickets from Fujairah to Abu Dhabi for wither 55 or 120 dirhams. However, these are introductory fares so the cost when the service launches on 3oth September may be more than this.
Although you can book tickets online, at the time of writing you can still only book from Fujairah to Abu Dhabi, so the addition of Dubai and Sharjah to the online booking process is yet to happen.
So there is not long to wait to be able to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi by train!
*Note that the main image is generated by AI and is not representative of Etihad Rail