MBR City

Transport 1 min read

Glydways pods are on trial at Bluewaters, and MBR City is on the route list

A chain of small cut-paper capsules on a thin track curving across a warm grey ground, one capsule set apart at a stop

The Roads and Transport Authority started trial operations of an automated transit system on 12 October 2026 at Bluewaters, with the American company Glydways. The trial runs four weeks.

What the system is

Small driverless vehicles carrying four to six passengers, running on demand on a dedicated narrow guideway at up to 50 km/h. Because the vehicles are small and continuous rather than large and scheduled, the RTA puts the capacity at more than 20,000 passengers an hour per direction, and the cost of the guideway well below a metro line.

The routes being studied

The authority lists corridors under study: a 2.8 km link from the National Paints Metro station to Bluewaters, and lines in Jumeirah Village Circle, Festival City, Business Bay and Mohammed Bin Rashid City. None has a date.

What was said

Mattar Al Tayer, the RTA's director general, framed the trial as part of the plan for flexible first-and-last-mile transport; Mark Seeger, Glydways' chief executive, said the Dubai trial is the company's first outside the United States.

MBR City is the corridor on that list where this makes the most sense, and the reason is the Gold Line. A metro station in the district will be a kilometre or more from most of its front doors, across a district built for cars, and the question the RTA has never answered is how a resident of District One or Sobha Hartland gets to it. A pod system that runs on demand along Al Meydan Street and the canal is a plausible answer, and a cheaper one than extending the metro into the villas. Watch for the study to turn into a route map; that is when the land next to the stops gets interesting.

Source: Roads and Transport Authority checked against the source

More MBR City news

Two cut-paper roads running side by side in a long S-curve across a teal ground, dashed lane lines along each

Transport

A fourth lane on Ras Al Khor and Al Khail

Two roads past MBR City now have four lanes instead of three: Ras Al Khor Road towards Al Khail, and a 1 km stretch of Al Khail towards Abu Dhabi. The RTA counts a third more capacity on each.

Two cut-paper roads meeting at a shallow angle on a warm grey ground, a small ringed disc at the junction

Transport

Al Asayel 80, Al Mustaqbal 70

From 1 November 2026 the RTA raises Al Asayel Street from 60 to 80 km/h between Oud Metha and Al Meydan Street, and Al Mustaqbal Street from 60 to 70 between Sheikh Rashid Road and Al Meydan Street. Both end at MBR City's northern boundary road.

A pale aqua paper bar on a deep teal ground, filled a quarter of the way along with chalk white, a small sand marker above the fill

Transport

Blue Line reaches 26 per cent

Construction on the Dubai Metro's Blue Line stands at 26 per cent in early September, against a target of 30 per cent by the end of the year and an opening set for 9 September 2029 — three years before the Gold Line reaches Meydan, in MBR City.