Dubai, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, opened its fully automated metro system this month. The opening was accompanied by an announcement that the cost of building it had increased a mere 80 percent from the original projections. The city says the higher cost was because they added to the line (by less than 5 percent) and redesigned the stations after signing contracts with builders.

The heavy-rail line will not only be the first metro rail system to be fully automated, it will be the first in the world to have multiple classes. Each five-car train will have one “gold” or first-class car, at least one car for women and children, and the remaining cars for “silver” or economy-class passengers. The trains will also offer free WiFi. Since Dubai’s population is 85 percent foreign workers and 15 percent locals or wealthy emigrants, the gold-class cars will probably be relatively empty much of the time. At least those oil sheiks who forego their Maybachs won’t have to rub shoulders with the servant class.

The cost of the initial red and green lines will average about $130 million per mile, which is typical for U.S. heavy-rail construction. Dubai plans to build two more lines by 2020, which will double the length and, no doubt, the cost of the system. The city expects to subsidize operations, which means it will never recover the construction costs out of fares. To help pay for it, they are selling naming rights to the train stations.

Nine years ago, the DC metro area proposed a bus-rapid transit line to Dulles Airport that would cost $300 million to start up and $38 million a year to operate. An alternative proposal to build a $3 billion rail line to the airport was deemed far too expensive.

Tysons Corner — not dense enough yet.

Meanwhile, developers and property owners at Tysons Corner, midway between DC and Dulles, applied to Fairfax County for permission to significantly expand the commercial and retail developments in what is already one of the largest edge cities in the metro area. With 46 million square feet of office space, Virginia’s largest shopping mall, and around 100,000 jobs, some might think that Tysons was developed enough, but landowners wanted to double the development. There was one obstacle in their way: The county said that the region’s transportation facilities were inadequate to serve the expansion.

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