The Dubai Trolley: what Emaar published, and what it deleted
Emaar launched a hydrogen-and-electric heritage tram on Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard in 2015. As of 4 September 2026, Emaar Properties’ own Dubai Trolley page returns a 404, while Emaar Malls still lists “The Dubai Trolley” as a way to get around The Dubai Mall on a page carrying a 2026 copyright. Neither Emaar company, nor RTA, nor Dubai’s tourism authority has published a suspension notice, a closure notice, an operating hour, or a fare. This page records what was published, by whom, and what has since been withdrawn.
Why this page exists
Most of this site is prices and opening hours. This page is neither, because there are none to publish. It is here because the Dubai Trolley is the clearest single example of the pattern we document on Dubai’s out-of-date official pages: an operator withdrew the documentation without ever withdrawing the claim. One Emaar entity implies the service exists. Another implies it does not. Neither says anything.
A visitor standing on the Boulevard has no way to resolve that from the operator’s own publications, and every third-party page that answers the question confidently is answering it without a source.
What each party publishes today
| Source | What it publishes about the Trolley | What that implies |
|---|---|---|
| Emaar PropertiesThe dedicated Dubai Trolley page | HTTP 404. Hard not-found, no redirect to a replacement page. The URL is still carried in search indexes under an Emaar title | Deleted. A visitor searching the operator’s name reaches an Emaar-branded dead link |
| Emaar PropertiesThe current Downtown Dubai community page | Lists Burj Khalifa, Dubai Opera, Souk Al Bahar, the Fountain, The Dubai Mall and the hotels. Carries an unanswered FAQ heading, “How can I get to Downtown Dubai using public transportation?” | The Trolley is absent from the operator’s description of its own district |
| Emaar Community ManagementAbout Downtown Dubai | No mention. The page itself is stale — its footer reads “All rights reserved 2022” | Absent even from a page frozen four years ago |
| Emaar MallsThe Dubai Mall, Plan Your Visit → Services | Under “Getting around”, a bare line item: “The Dubai Trolley”. No hours, no fare, no route, no link, no note. Footer: ©2026 Emaar Malls | The only surviving first-party claim of any kind, and it is a claim of existence with zero operational detail, on an actively maintained page |
| RTA | Its public transport pages list metro, tram, bus, taxi and marine. No trolley of any kind | Expected — it was a private Emaar asset, never an RTA service — but it means no authority ever assumed responsibility for informing the public about it |
| Visit DubaiDubai Department of Economy and Tourism | No Dubai Trolley page. Its Downtown things-to-do article, dated 19 April 2024, does not mention it; neither does its getting-around guide | Dubai’s own tourism authority does not tell visitors the Trolley exists |
| Dubai Media Office | No launch release and no closure notice we could find. RTA ridership releases count metro, tram, bus, taxi and marine | The Trolley has never been a line in Dubai’s official ridership accounting |
| TIG/m, the manufacturer | Its 2015 press release survives on a trade site. Its own current website shows its product line with no mention of Dubai, the Dubai Trolley or Emaar anywhere | The builder no longer showcases the project either |
The factual record, and where it disagrees with itself
Everything below was published once. Where two sources give different figures we give both, because the operator no longer publishes anything that would settle it.
Propulsion
The manufacturer, TIG/m LLC, announced it on 7 April 2015 under the heading “Dubai Gets First Hydrogen/Electric Hybrid Self-Powered Trolley”. Emaar’s own wording, as relayed by Gulf News at the time, was that the tram was “hydrogen and electric-powered”. A third account, via Railway Gazette International of 21 April 2015, describes it as powered by fuel cells with batteries recovering regenerative braking energy. Emaar publishes no propulsion description today.
Route and length — three incompatible figures
| Source | Phase one | Full build as announced |
|---|---|---|
| TIG/m, 7 April 2015 | “nearly 1 km”, three stations — The Address Downtown Dubai, Vida Downtown Dubai, The Dubai Mall | 5 km encircling Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall |
| Emaar, via Gulf News | 1 km on Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, serving Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall, the Fountain, Souk Al Bahar and Old Town | 7 km across Downtown’s 500 acres |
| Railway Gazette, 21 April 2015 | 1.1 km, three stops — The Address, Manzil Downtown, Vida Downtown | 4.6 km loop with ten stations |
Note that even the stop list is unresolved: the third stop is The Dubai Mall in the manufacturer’s account and Manzil Downtown in Railway Gazette’s. Which direction the loop ran is published by nobody, in any source, at any time.
The vehicle
A hand-built double-deck heritage-style trolley in red with gold pin-stripes and green trim, built in the United States by TIG/m, with both open-deck and air-conditioned seating. Capacity is published as 74 passengers by the manufacturer and as 50 passengers by Railway Gazette — and Gulf News published both figures across two of its own articles. A maximum speed of 80 km/h appears in one news article only and is not corroborated. The first vehicle was delivered in April 2015; a second convertible double-decker was stated to be arriving later that year.
Phases
Announced in 2008. Phase one, roughly a kilometre with three stops, opened in 2015. The full loop — ten stations, at whichever of the three lengths you believe — was never completed, and Emaar has never published a statement either confirming or abandoning it. It was announced, partially built, and then never mentioned again by its owner.
The fare: nobody has ever published one
This is worth stating plainly, because it is the question every visitor asks and because the answer is unusual. No operator-published fare for the Dubai Trolley exists on any live page. Emaar Properties’ page is gone. Emaar Malls lists the service with no price. The manufacturer’s press release carries none. The widely repeated claim that it was free to ride is not attributed to Emaar in any source we could reach.
Ticket marketplaces do list and sell against the name “Dubai Trolley by Emaar”. We do not reproduce reseller prices anywhere on this site, and here the reason is starker than usual: those listings price an asset whose operator has published no fare, no hours and no confirmation that it runs.
Operating hours: one unattributed line
The only hours in circulation — 4pm to midnight on weekdays, 3pm to 11pm at weekends — come from a single Gulf News article that does not attribute them to a named Emaar source, and whose publication date we could not establish. No first-party operating hours exist. Emaar Malls lists the Trolley today with none.
What stands there now
Nothing has been announced as a replacement by anyone with authority. Emaar Malls’ current “Getting around” list offers a Club Car service, valet parking, Boulevard tour buses, taxis, public transport and RTA ticket machines — alongside the still-listed Trolley. The Boulevard tour buses are a second undocumented Emaar mobility claim on the same page: no operator, no route, no hours, no fare.
RTA has announced nothing on this alignment. Reporting about trackless trams in Dubai exists, but no authority document ties any trackless tram to Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard or to replacing the Trolley, so we do not connect the two.
Accounts of what physically remains — poles still standing, a vehicle displayed in the street, the depot converted to commercial use — trace to an uncited encyclopaedia passage. We could not confirm any of it from a first-party or news source and therefore do not publish it as fact.
Questions with no published answer
For most pages on this site, this list is short. For the Trolley it is nearly the whole subject.
- Is it running? Emaar Malls implies yes by listing it on a 2026 page. Emaar Properties implies no by deleting its page. Neither states anything.
- When did it stop, and why? No operator, authority or news outlet published a suspension or closure notice. The date most often repeated online is uncited, and the article carrying it has no reference later than 2015.
- Will it return? No Emaar, RTA or Media Office statement exists.
- What did it cost? No fare was ever published on any page still live.
- What time did it run? No first-party hours exist.
- Where exactly were the stops? No operator stop list or map survives, and the two surviving accounts name a different third stop.
- How long was the route, and how many people did it hold? Three published lengths, two published capacities, one outlet publishing both capacities.
- Was it step-free? Was the upper deck usable in summer? Accessibility is published by nobody. Only the manufacturer ever addressed the air conditioning.
- Who do you ask? Emaar publishes no contact point, service page or enquiry route for the Trolley. The 404 is the end of the trail.
What actually moves you around Downtown
Since the Trolley cannot be planned around, the practical answer is the network that publishes its fares. Metro fares are published in three zones by RTA; Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station connects to the mall by a long air-conditioned link bridge. Taxi fares and their flagfall variations are published, as are bus fares on the same nol tariff. If you are driving, public parking tariffs and mall parking rules are both transcribed from the operators. The district itself is covered on Downtown Dubai.
How this page will change
If Emaar publishes a closure notice, a resumption, a fare or a set of hours, this page changes the same day and the change is logged in the corrections log with the date. If you have a dated photograph of the alignment as it stands now, or a screenshot of an Emaar page we have not seen, send it — that is exactly the evidence this page is missing.
More in Getting around
See everything in Getting around.
Common questions
Is the Dubai Trolley still running?
No operator or authority publishes an answer. Emaar Properties' Dubai Trolley page now returns 404. Emaar Malls still lists “The Dubai Trolley” under getting around The Dubai Mall on a page carrying a 2026 copyright, with no hours, fare or route. Neither company has published a closure notice.
How much does the Dubai Trolley cost?
No fare has ever been published on any page still live. Emaar's own page is gone, Emaar Malls lists the service with no price, and the manufacturer's announcement carried none. The widely repeated claim that it was free is not attributed to Emaar in any source we could reach.
What time does the Dubai Trolley run?
No first-party operating hours exist. The only hours in circulation — 4pm to midnight on weekdays, 3pm to 11pm at weekends — come from a single news article that does not attribute them to a named Emaar source and whose publication date we could not establish.
Was the Dubai Trolley really hydrogen-powered?
The manufacturer, TIG/m, announced it in April 2015 as a hydrogen/electric hybrid. Emaar's own wording at the time was “hydrogen and electric-powered”. A third account describes fuel cells with batteries recovering regenerative braking energy. Emaar publishes no propulsion description today.
How long was the Dubai Trolley route?
Three sources give three different figures for the full build: 5 km from the manufacturer, 7 km from Emaar via Gulf News, and 4.6 km with ten stations from Railway Gazette. Phase one was about a kilometre with three stops. We publish all three because nothing current settles it.
Where did the Dubai Trolley stop?
No operator stop list or map survives. Two accounts name a different third stop — The Dubai Mall in one, Manzil Downtown in the other. Which direction the loop ran is published by nobody.
What replaced the Dubai Trolley?
Nothing has been announced as a replacement by anyone with authority. Emaar Malls' current getting-around list names “Boulevard tour buses” with no operator, route, hours or fare — a second undocumented mobility claim on the same page.
How do I get around Downtown Dubai instead?
By the network that publishes its fares: metro to Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall and the link bridge, taxi, or bus. If you are driving, mall parking rules are transcribed per operator.