Dubai Metro in the direction of... UAE Exchange?

Regular Metro users must be familiar with the sound of the announcements. Every other 2 minutes or so, the arrival or the departure of a Metro is announced in the direction of either Rashidiya or Jebel Ali.

It will be quite a bit of a shock when that same Metro suddenly goes to UAE Exchange, a relative unknown destination on the Metro line in Dubai.

There is no need to worry, the train is on its familiar track. UAE Exchange is the new name of Jebel Ali station, the latest in a series of name changes of the Metro stations.

The naming right project is a public-private partnership initiated by the Roads and Transport Authority ( RTA ), enabling companies to name a station and thereby increase exposure of its brand name.

As soon as the completion of the development of the countries’ first metro network was in sight, the public was offered the opportunity to share its anticipated success, with the first tenders opened back in 2008.

Six years down the line, there are 16 stations that are named after partners with the latest change introduced in June this year.

Some stations names have probably been well accepted among the commuting population, which knows no better than that there is a Nakheel, Etisalat, or Mall of the Emirates station.

However, more recently changed station names may result in an incidental miss of station.

Luckily, naming contracts are signed for a period of 10 years, after which the company is given preference if it wants to extend the contract.

To refresh the memory and confusion, Emirates 24|7 has listed the changes made since 2012.

Burjuman and Danube

In December 2012, two stations were renamed at once. Khalid bin Waleed was renamed Burjuman after the adjacent shopping centre. Jebel Ali Industrial station was renamed Danube.

Noor Bank and FGN

Both stations were named after a bank in the vicinity. The names of these stations were changed once again when the respective banks underwent a name change of their own.

In January last year, Noor Islamic Bank was renamed Noor Bank, and so was the Metro station named after the bank.

In April last year, a similar name change occurred when First Gulf Bank was rebranded as FGB, which is now the name of its station on the Metro Line.

ADCB and Damac station

Two popular stations on the Red Line were changed in September last year as their names were bought by two known companies.

Karama station became ADCB, while Marina station became Damac station.

It is noteworthy to point out here that the Tram station connected to the Damac station kept its name and is still referred to as the Marina station.

UAE Exchange

In June 2015, one more Metro station's name was bought, rebranding the final destination of Jebel Ali to UAE Exchange.