Now on platform 1 … a stylish ride for Riyadh commuters

All photos: Justin Doherty

The Riyadh Metro is officially open. After years of uncertainty and rumour, the long-suffering commuters of this great city can zip around in style. And what style!  

Walking into Zaha Hadid Architects’ astonishing station at King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), you are struck by the grandeur, space and light. When I visited, the neatly attired staff in green blazers with brass buttons outnumbered the passengers, eager to help us metro virgins work out the fares and routes.

I had originally tried to board at my local station next to King Fahad Library in Olaya. The station was boarded up at 6:30am but the presence of at least 150 helmeted workers suggested there was a frenzy of work still to be done.  

Likewise at the Ministry of Interior station, where the charming Mohanned politely explained that they would be open tomorrow, Insh’Allah.

KAFD is the central hub of the network, which will have seven colour-coded lines when complete. I chose the yellow line up to the airport.

The trains are bright and airy with four carriages. They don’t stretch the length of the platform so I suspect carriages will be added when demand increases. The atmosphere on board was celebratory. There’s a premium section and plenty of space to sit and stand.

On my train were a couple of well-organised commuters, several people there just for the ride, more blazer-wearing guards and a man in an Alstom polo shirt checking everything was working fine (Alstom makes the trains).

The best bit? The single-man section at the front of the trains. With a huge window and no driver to obscure the view, you can sit and enjoy the rollercoaster ride as you hurtle above and below ground, snaking through Riyadh, opening up vistas you will not have seen before.

You won’t ever have seen views like this of Princess Nourah University, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Hospital, Riyadh Front and the airport.

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The experience is infinitely better than the dreadful metros in Paris and New York. Some of the lines on London’s Tube have improved with time and the new Elizabeth Line is superb, but even those would struggle to compete with the shiny and spacious Riyadh Metro.

A source of particular irritation on legacy mass transit systems is the noise pollution from so many announcements. Mercifully the Riyadh announcements are delivered by a soothing woman’s voice, in English and Arabic, and it is not too loud.

On the busy streets of the city, there are no immediately obvious metro symbols like London Underground’s famous roundel. However, most of the stations are cleverly located on main streets and at junctions – and many are shaped like an inverted turtleshell made of white metal, which are quite easy to spot.

Last week I rode on the Dubai Metro, which opened 15 years ago. Sadly, what was then a boon to the city has become a sweaty, seething mass of people, groaning under the pressure of so many bodies.  

The Riyadh Metro is a joy to ride and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the city’s productivity. Its traffic congestion, which can turn 15-minute trips into hour-long journeys, is unsustainable in a modern ambitious city.  

The new metro has arrived not a moment too soon – and it is brilliant.

Justin Doherty is chairman of international reputation and policy adviser Hemington