Palm Jumeirah, United Arab Emirates

A spectacular new man-made island has been built near Dubai in the shape of a palm. On the island are upscale residences, resorts and attractions. Hitachi is building a monorail system to connect major points on the trunk island with the gateway. The system will be driverless, but attendants will be onboard in the same way as a similar monorail has at Tokyo Disney Resort. Stations include Gateway Towers, Trump Tower, Retail Plaza and Atlantis Resort. Ridership is expected to be around 40,000 passengers per day. A 2-km extension is planned for later in 2009 to connect with the Dubai Metro, also under construction. The monorail system is the first major monorail in the Middle East and the first rail system in United Arab Emirates.