Real Estate Impact of the Etihad Rail Launch

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
So, real estate now on the Morning Drive, real estate news headlines this week. And then we're going to talk AI and tech. Is artificial intelligence and technology replacing the real estate agent? And we have a real estate agent here to discuss that very topic with me as ever. Wednesday morning, Mario Volpi is here. Nice to see you.

**Mario Volpi** (0:20)
Morning, Tim.

**Tim Elliott** (0:21)
A senior manager with Eva Real Estate, Mario is one of the voices you can hear regularly on the Dubai Property Podcast, and you can read him too in the National Weekly.

**Mario Volpi** (0:31)
See? You've been practicing that, haven't you?

**Tim Elliott** (0:33)
I was in front of the mirror yesterday with a hairbrush doing that. Nice to see you. Look, there's a lot happened. I wanted to start today, actually, with Etihad Rail because the official launch has now happened, of course. Here we are, 1st of July, and the trains are off. I'm kind of excited about this because, like you, we, you know, you and me, we grew up with train travel and hopping on the metro trains of pre-electricity. Yeah, exactly. Remember those steam trains? When they used to send children up chimneys? Yeah, those were the days. But the network is now operational between Abu Dhabi and Fijira. So we've got expansion into Dubai, the Northern Emirates scheduled later this year into 2027
But I think it's exciting times. And there is obviously a link to real estate, the impact on real estate of enhanced travel and interconnectivity is there. But are you hopping on board, let's say?

**Mario Volpi** (1:28)
I don't plan to, but I think I will do. I mean, here I am, I've been 18 years, and I've never been to Global Village. So I know I'm saving those folks.

**Tim Elliott** (1:37)
They should revoke your visa. Segway into that. That's so wrong.

**Mario Volpi** (1:41)
So I'm just trying to say, will I have a go? Of course I will.
But not necessarily anytime soon.

**Tim Elliott** (1:49)
Right. So what we've got, I'll just run through it, because I want to talk about the real estate implications of this. And it's not just implications for Dubai or Abu Dhabi, it's for Fajira. It's, you know, there's quite a lot to talk about. So we've got a phased timeline to connect the major kind of urban and industrial centers, June the 30th, passenger services, Abu Dhabi, all the way to Fajira. So Mohammed bin Zayed City Station, the main terminus, if you like, to Al-Hilal City, which is Fajira Station. So you can get all the way across the Emirates. Dubai Station, Jumeirah Gulf Estates, Dade, which is Sharjah, scheduled, I think, it's end of September.
End of December, Al-Dhafra Region, so that's Silla and Dana, Murfa, Medina Zayed, Liyue and Al-Fayyat, set to open at the end of the year. And then March 30th, the network will reach completion, and that's University City Station in Sharjah. That's how it's going to unfold.

**Mario Volpi** (2:42)
I think it will help, obviously, the commuting side between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And I think that has got to improve the timing and the relaxation between the two areas. Because driving to Abu Dhabi, or perhaps back from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, can be a little bit precarious at times, especially after a long day at work, for those that actually work in Abu Dhabi and live in Dubai. So this is amazing news.
Whether I'm gonna use it or not or try it is immaterial. I mean, the fact that we've never had rails, then it started off obviously with the metro, then the tram. So naturally, to have a proper inter-Emirate system is really, really good news. It's great for the Emirates, it's great for hospitality, and it's great for the residents, whether you're doing it from a leisure point of view or obviously for business. But I have a question for you. So I heard on the radio that they were trying to find passenger number one.
Do you know about that? Do you know who was the first person to sit in seat one, carriage one on that journey the other day?

**Tim Elliott** (3:52)
That's a good point. I read a story about passenger number one, Emirati guy, it was a great quote. It was almost one small step for man sort of quote. I can't even remember it now. It was that good.

**Mario Volpi** (4:03)
But he was going to, it was somebody that was going to be nominated. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't, for example, Sheikh Mohammed, because obviously he had been on the train anyway, on the testing service parts of the train. But the actual first journey, it was like a lottery ticket to sort of get that seat.