Transport

Financing being finalised for Riyadh-Jeddah railway line

October 15, 2024, 2:45 PM

Saudi Arabia already has a railway line between Riyadh and Dammam, and it now hopes to add a line to Jeddah

Riyadh-Jeddah line to cost $7bn
Financing finalised soon
Cargo only initially

Saudi Arabia Railways hopes to finalise financing for its “Landbridge” project linking the east and west of the country within months, an official said this week.

“It will cost at least $7 billion, it depends on the budget. If the budget’s available then we will start building, it will be finished before 2030,” Mesfer Alyami, warehousing and logistics manager, said on the sidelines of a logistics conference in Riyadh.

“The financing will be from government entities, maybe the Public Investment Fund or the ministry of finance, we don’t know, but we [will] know soon this year or the beginning of next year,” he added.

The PIF, which leads Saudi economic reforms, owns Saudi Arabia Railways.

Saudi Arabia already has a passenger and cargo rail line from the capital Riyadh to Dammam on the Gulf coast but there is no railway covering the 950km from Riyadh to Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.

The network is viewed primarily as part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to become a global logistics centre as it sits at the connection point of Asia, Africa and Europe.

The government has budgeted billions of dollars for port, rail, aviation and special economic zones, transport and logistics minister Saleh Al-Jasser said this week.

The Landbridge project will carry freight at first and only add in passengers after 2030, Alyami said.

“Cargo at the beginning, maybe after a while we will start a passenger service. Now we are focused on cargo, maybe later,” Alyami said, adding that the specifications have not been finalised yet. “It’s not clear if it will use fuel or electricity, it’s still not yet decided.”

Most people among the population of 32 million use air routes to cover the longer distances in the vast country, making a passenger train to Jeddah less of a priority.

New regional airports are also being added and existing ones privatised – 100 companies have made bids for the Abha airport tender in southeast Saudi Arabia, officials say, investment minister Khalid Al Falih told the logistics forum.

Saudi Arabia Railways has already expanded its cargo routes to the vicinity of the Jordanian border, Kuwait and Qatar and is waiting for their governments to complete connecting rail lines.

“Now we’re about to establish a new company between Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar … We are very close to the border,” Al Falih said, adding Oman, Bahrain and the UAE have not laid their tracks yet.

Frank Hagemeier, CEO at Siemens Mobility Saudi Ltd, said Saudi Arabia would benefit from a high speed network ahead of major events that will attract millions of visitors.

“The potential for a high speed network in Saudi Arabia is huge. With the World Cup in 2034, such a network is almost necessary,” he said, noting advances in rail infrastructure technology that will ease maintenance of lines in a harsh desert environment.