Riyadh Metro could get Saudis to quit their cars

OK. So it did not go entirely as advertised. The first phase of the Riyadh Metro was due to open on Wednesday; instead the system has been inaugurated and operation of three of the six lines – Blue, Yellow and Violet – officially starts on December 1.

When the trains do roll, the metro will enable the Saudi capital to emerge from decades of car-locked dowdiness, relieving the city’s overcrowding and traffic congestion.

The three other lines to complete the network should start operations later next month. For four riyals a ride, passengers can travel on nearly 180km of track for a two-hour period. There are special carriages for women, families and VIPs.

There are questions about whether residents can be persuaded to quit their cars, but if Dubai is anything to go by the answer is “yes”. If it means getting across town in under an hour, rather than contemplating concrete, tarmac and exhaust pipes for an entire morning or afternoon, people of all classes – including VIPs – are likely to take public transport. The metro, by the way, is coordinated with a new-ish bus network.

What the metro opening presages is Riyadh’s evolution into a more normal city – and one more in keeping with the capital of a G20 country. My colleague Andrew Hammond has documented the ambitious, not to say outrageous, plans for Riyadh as it prepares to host World Expo in 2030 and in all probability the soccer World Cup in 2034.

Sited on a plateau in Najd, the city has until now been a conurbation of districts, hastily built to cope with surging numbers of inhabitants. Riyadh was designed on a US model of wide streets for big cars and SUVs with few pavements, parks or other areas for walking.

Saudis themselves often wanted to live in walled villas while conservative elements were suspicious of high-rises, deeming them open to the possibility of the genders mixing unsupervised. The result has been urban sprawl.

The tougher Suwaidi and Shmeisi districts have had little to do with Olaya, the central business district, let alone with Hayy al-Safarat or the Diplomatic Quarter.

A huge cultural shift is now being attempted embracing what is green, public, open, cultural, and welcoming. The metro, for example, is being powered by solar panels.

The opening of the lines means that the city should quickly become more connected. For visitors, the city will no longer be confined to Olaya Street linking the Faisaliah Tower and Kingdom Centre, with a trip out to Diriyah to see the gate with the spear tip in it.

Over the next four years or so, visitors will be able to conjure with the extraordinary prospect of the Salvator Mundi being displayed in a museum in King Salman Park and, in time, with the Qurain Cultural and Northern Districts at Diriyah announced last week. Let us hope, by the way, the emphasis on local authenticity in the design of many of the projects is fulfilled.

There is Qiddiya, southwest of Riyadh, the site for Expo 2030 described by one promoter as Saudi Arabia’s Disney World. Here, plans for a multi-use sports stadium and a gaming and esports district have been unveiled. And, back in centre of the city, there is New Murabba complete with 18 communities, with the Mukaab – “the most complex structure ever known to man, ever built” – at its centre.

There is also the prospect of a Roshn Stadium to host the World Cup and a refurbished and expanded airport, which will be the base for the ambitious Riyadh Air.

Not everything is about trophies – although trophies arguably play an important part in making a city. Someone senior in the Saudi government has been reading Burke and Hayek and has made property ownership in Riyadh and beyond central to development.

Mohammad Albuty, CEO of the National Housing Company, said earlier this month that 63 percent of Saudis now own their own homes. The government wants to push that up to 70 percent by 2030.

There are losers in this. Over in Jeddah, the port on the Red Sea coast, work has re-started on the Jeddah Tower, billed as the tallest building in the world when complete, but the city does not appear to be receiving the funding to develop its south side.

Two years ago, Saudi Downtown Company was launched to redevelop the centres of 12 provincial cities: Medina, Khobar, Al Ahsa, Buraidah, Najran, Jazan, Hail, Al Baha, Arar, Taif, Dumat Al Jandal and Tabuk. Some work for sure is underway in Medina, Buraidah and Khobar, but it is not clear what is happening in other provincial centres.

The focus on Riyadh is in part because the unexpected success of winning Expo 2030 and the World Cup has meant that resources have had to be directed to host these major events.

Nonetheless we should welcome the opening of the Riyadh Metro. The city will never be a Haussman- or a Lutyens-inspired place of beauty. But it should be a much more liveable and, whisper it quietly, more pleasant city.