A land bridge through the sand
Stimulate freight transport by expanding Saudi Arabia’s rail infrastructure. Saudi Arabian Railways’ network covers approximately 5,000 km today. Over the next five to seven years it is set to be expanded to 8,000 km, which should give a boost to the ‘Vision 2030’ that the kingdom is pursuing for its economy.
“We want to build an integrated and sophisticated railway system and strengthen our sector, in line with the nation’s ‘Vision 2030’,” says SAR CEO Bashar Khalid Al Malik. That his statements are not built on sand is underlined, for example, by a project for a ‘land bridge’.
With a 1,300 km east-west connection, Saudi Arabia wants to directly link its ports on the Persian Gulf with those on the Red Sea for the first time. The project has been designed to provide 50 million t of freight capacity a year and become an important link for global goods flows – also to move away from the traditional economic engines of the region – oil and gas.
The kingdom also sees itself as a pioneer in the field of new railway technologies. Recent achievements in freight transport technology, for example, will enable the operation of a 3 km train – one of the longest in the world.