The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will start operating the Dubai Tram this evening on 11 November.

The new transport network serves Dubai Marina, Media City and Al-Sufouh road, and connects to Dubai Metro and the Palm Monorail.

The $1.1bn main contract for the tram was awarded to France’s Alstom and the local/Belgian Belhasa Six Construct in 2008.

In June 2010, work was halted due to financing issues, with it beginning again in January 2011. In 2012, a consortium led by Alstom won a 13-year, $231m maintenance contract for the tram project’s first phase and in September 2013, the UK’s Serco won a $17.9m contract to operate it.