Dubai Metro Map
The Dubai Metro map shows two lines, 55 metro stations and 11 tram stops, all shaded into the four fare zones that contain rail. RTA's own version is a PDF titled the Rail Network Map, published December 2025, and it is the only drawing that decides which zone a station falls in. This page explains how to read it and what changed on the latest edition.
Where the official Dubai Metro map lives
RTA publishes the network map as a single PDF at rta.ae under the rail links folder, filed as the Rail Network Map and stamped Published December 2025. It is the authority for station names, line colours, interchange symbols and zone shading, and it is refreshed when a station is renamed or a branch opens rather than on a fixed schedule.
Every station zone on this site is read from that December 2025 drawing, because RTA does not publish a station to zone table anywhere else. That matters more than it sounds: the zone decides the fare, and a station shaded on the wrong side of a boundary changes the price of a trip by AED 5 instead of AED 3.
Printed copies hang in every station concourse next to the ticket machines, and each platform carries a strip map of its own line with the next stops in running order. Our zone lookup turns the same shading into a searchable answer for any of the 66 stations.
How to read the Dubai Metro map
Two coloured lines carry the whole network. Red runs from centrepoint in the north east, along Sheikh Zayed Road, out to Life Pharmacy in Jabal Ali, with the Route 2020 branch splitting away at National Paints towards Expo 2020. Green loops from e& in Al Qusais through Deira, under the creek, into Bur Dubai and finishes at Creek in Al Jaddaf.
Codes do the real work. Red Line stations are numbered from R11 upwards, Green from G11, tram from T01, and the branch jumps to R70. Gaps in the numbering are deliberate: there is no R27, R28, R30 or R75, which are reservations rather than missing stations. A code on a ticket machine or in an app always beats a station name, because names change and codes do not.
Interchange symbols appear at four points only. Union and BurJuman join Red to Green. DMCC and Sobha Realty sit beside the tram stops at Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Marina. Each interchange is covered in detail here, including how long the change takes.
What changed on the map in 2025
Four Red Line stations picked up new sponsor names during 2025, which is why an older printed map or a screenshot from a travel blog will not match the signs on the platform. Al Fardan Exchange and Al Garhoud both changed in April, Life Pharmacy in May, and National Paints in July. Nothing about the route or the fares changed, only the name on the wall.
Sponsor renames are a steady feature of this network rather than a one off. Rashidiya became centrepoint and Al Jafiliya became max in August 2021, Etisalat became e& in February 2023, and Mashreq became InsuranceMarket in September 2024. The codes stayed the same throughout, which is the practical reason to memorise R32 rather than Mall of the Emirates.
Older names still circulate in taxis, in hotel directions and in app search boxes, and a driver who has worked Dubai for a decade will know Jebel Ali long after the sign says Life Pharmacy. The full station list keeps every former name against its current one, so a printed map from 2019 can still be matched to what is on the platform today.
| Code | Name on the current map | Previously | Changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| R15 | Al Garhoud | GGICO | April 2025 |
| R35 | Al Fardan Exchange | Al Khail, and Nakheel before that | April 2025 |
| R42 | Life Pharmacy | UAE Exchange, and Jebel Ali before that | May 2025 |
| R38 | National Paints | Jabal Ali, and Nakheel Harbour and Tower before that | July 2025 |
| R33 | InsuranceMarket | Mashreq, and Sharaf DG before that | September 2024 |
Compiled from the RTA rail network map of December 2025 and Khaleej Times, 27 June 2025.
Zone shading and what it costs you
The map shades Dubai into seven fare zones, but rail touches only four of them. Zone 5 holds Deira, Al Qusais and both airport stations. Zone 6 covers Bur Dubai, Zabeel, Downtown and Business Bay. Zone 2 runs from Al Safa to Jebel Ali and contains every tram stop. Zone 1 is the far south west, from Danube out to Expo 2020. Zones 3, 4 and 7 are bus territory.
The creek is the boundary between zones 5 and 6, and the map puts Union on the Deira side and BurJuman on the Bur Dubai side. One stop between them crosses a zone and costs AED 5 rather than AED 3. Danube and Jumeirah Golf Estates are drawn straight on the 1 and 2 line, and take the cheaper zone when they are the start or end of a trip.
Zone shading is easy to misread on a phone screen, because the tints are pale and the boundary runs behind the line rather than across it. The safe habit is to check the two end stations of a trip and ignore everything in between, since the fare counts distinct zones touched and a middle station in a zone you already crossed adds nothing to the total.
Lines that are not on the map yet
Two more lines are approved and neither appears on the December 2025 drawing as running track. The Blue Line adds 30 km and 14 stations towards Dubai Creek Harbour, International City, Academic City and Mirdif, with an opening date of 9 September 2029 and new interchanges at Creek and centrepoint.
The Gold Line was approved on 22 April 2026: 42 km fully underground, 18 stations, running from Al Ghubaiba to Jumeirah Golf Estates by way of Business Bay, Meydan and Al Barsha South, with an opening date of 9 September 2032. Any map you find showing either line in service is a projection, not the current network. The route planner works only on track that carries passengers today.
Older editions of the map are still worth keeping for one reason: they show how quickly the network has changed shape. The 2009 opening covered ten stations. The Green Line arrived in 2011, the tram in 2014, and the Route 2020 branch in 2021, which took the Red Line past Jumeirah Golf Estates and Dubai Investment Park to Expo City.
What the Dubai Metro map does not show
A schematic map flattens distance. On paper the gap between Business Bay and ONPASSIVE looks the same as any other, but it is the longest gap on the Red Line trunk at 5 minutes of running time, and the walk between two stations that look adjacent can be 20 minutes along a road with no pavement. The map also gives no hint of which exit you need, and the wrong exit at Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall adds a 15 minute walk through a car park.
It says nothing about crowding either. BurJuman handled 17.8 million riders in 2025 and Al Rigga 13.8 million, so the two stops that look most convenient on the map are the two where you are least likely to sit down at 18:00. Nor does the map mark which stations are underground and air conditioned to the street, which is the difference that matters most in August.
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Frequently asked questions
Where can I download the official Dubai Metro map PDF?
RTA hosts it at rta.ae in the rail links folder as the Rail Network Map. The current edition is stamped Published December 2025 and covers both metro lines, the tram and the fare zone shading for all 66 stations.
How many stations are on the Dubai Metro map?
55 metro stations, split 35 on the Red Line and 20 on the Green Line, plus the 11 Dubai Tram stops drawn alongside the Marina. The Route 2020 branch accounts for six of the Red Line total.
What changed on the Dubai Metro map in 2025?
Four Red Line renames: GGICO became Al Garhoud and Al Khail became Al Fardan Exchange in April, UAE Exchange became Life Pharmacy in May, and Jabal Ali became National Paints in July. Routes, codes and fares were untouched.
Does the Dubai Metro map show fare zones?
Yes, as background shading. Seven zones exist and four contain rail stations: 1, 2, 5 and 6. The shading is the only public source for a station's zone, which is why a fare of AED 3 or AED 5 can hinge on which side of a boundary a station is drawn.
Why do the station codes skip numbers?
R27, R28, R30 and R75 are reserved slots rather than stations that closed. The Route 2020 branch was numbered separately from R70 upwards so the trunk numbering did not have to be redrawn when it opened in 2021.
Is the Dubai Tram on the same map?
Yes, as a separate line in the Marina with 11 stops, all in Zone 2. It meets the metro at DMCC and Sobha Realty, and it runs on its own hours of 06:00 to 01:00 Monday to Saturday.