United Arab Emirates Buses
There are
seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stretching along the
Arabian Gulf coastline of eastern Arabia.
Abu Dhabi is the largest and is also the Emirates capital but is more
conservative than the second largest city - Dubai which boasts the tallest
building in the world at over a quarter of a mile high! A little further along the coast is the
Emirate of Sharjah, which is one of the
smallest of the seven Emirates. The independent transport videos cameras concentrated on the
three aforementioned Emirates for the purpose of this programme. The Abu Dhabi bus fleet is dominated by ‘MAN
Lion’s City’ buses in a blue and white livery for local services and ‘MAN
Lion’s Regio’ coaches in
either the blue or a red livery for
longer trunk routes to the other Emirates.
Sharjah has an orange and
white livery for its smaller fleet, with MCV bodied Mercedes being its latest
arrivals. Dubai on the other hand has a
very large fleet in a smart off white and red livery. They are operated by RTA, the Roads and
Transport Authority. This varied fleet
includes three axle Neoplan double deckers, Mercedes-Benz Citaros and Solaris Urbinos in rigid and
articulated form, Neoplan single deckers and new VDL Citeas. A large fleet of Sunsundegui bodied Volvos run
the very frequent express services to the other Emirates branded as ‘Emirates
Express’.
Our
filming starts in Abu Dhabi at Al Markaziyah then moves to Marina Mall
a busy shopping and leisure
area where a number of services terminate.
The next location is at the main bus station and outside it on the busy
East Road where all types can be seen in action as well as coaches from
Sharjah Transport in their
smart orange and white with blue trim livery.
From the city centre we move back to Marina Mall for more action.
We then make a brief visit to the Emirate of Sharjah and film at the
bus
station. Unfortunately we had to cut
short our filming due to a ‘haboob’ – sand storm which is not conducive
to sensitive
filming equipment! We make up for this
shortfall in Dubai. Filming starts along
Baniyas Road on our way to
the small but interesting Sabkha bus station. From the waterside
at Bur Dubai we then film
in and around Al Ghubaiba bus station. The Gold Souq bus station
is our next venue, where we catch up with a
former London Transport Leyland Titan with the ‘Big Bus’ fleet, as well
as a
number of coaches that have travelled the desert roads from far and
wide. We
take a ride on a Solaris articulated bus to Union Metro station.
After more filming around the city we travel
on Sunsundegui bodied Volvo E6257
(B-89744) back to Abu Dhabi. An
interesting ride as we run alongside the new Metro and see the scenery
change
to desert before the buildings of Abu Dhabi start to appear.
Another visit to the bus station before our
final scenes along 18th Street and the Corniche bring our Middle East
adventure to a close.
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Filmed
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2012 |
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Duration
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106 minutes (approx). |
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Price
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Within UK - £16 |
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Rest of world -
£18 |
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Format
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DVD -R |
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Picture Aspect 16:9 |
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Order
Ref : |
D153 |