THE opening days of InnoTrans 2024 had been busy for Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR). Its CEO, Dr Bashar Khaled Al-Malik, hosted a number of teams on the railway’s stand within the Metropolis Dice and quite a lot of memoranda of understanding (MoU) had been signed with current and future companions.
Al-Malik described InnoTrans as “the best platform” to interact with the worldwide leaders of the railway trade and stated that SAR’s presence on the commerce present “underscores our dedication to adopting cutting-edge applied sciences, increasing our rail community, and contributing to Saudi Arabia’s bold Imaginative and prescient 2030 targets.”
Actually, there’s a nice deal occurring at SAR in the intervening time, and far for rail trade suppliers to be enthusiastic about. Chief amongst them is the long-anticipated Saudi Landbridge mission, which Al-Malik describes as SAR’s precedence.
The general public-private partnership (PPP) scheme entails development of a brand new 950km railway between Riyadh and Jeddah, providing a direct rail connection between the Crimson Sea and the Arabian Gulf for the primary time. The mission primarily entails new line development and a few upgrading, in addition to the event of related logistics services and passenger stations. Work is anticipated to take seven years to finish and is split into six sections (see panel under).
Attending to the development stage has proved troublesome. The mission was conceived as way back as 2004 and revived in 2011, however progress has been gradual since then. The oil disaster of the mid-2010s stalled the early momentum and compelled a rethink of how Saudi Arabia and different Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states would fund main infrastructure tasks, together with the Landbridge. After Italferr and native associate Arabian Consulting Engineering Centre (ACEC) accomplished design in 2017, Saudi Arabia’s need to interact non-public finance was mirrored within the signing of an MoU with Saudi China Landbridge Consortium (SLCC) to implement the mission beneath a PPP in October 2018.
FREIGHT trains will function at as much as 160km/h and passenger trains at as much as 250km/h on the Landbridge, improvement of which is break up into six sections:
Part 1: improve of the Jubail Industrial Metropolis inside community on the Gulf coast, which is presently underway, and would require the development of 10km of latest monitor
Part 2: improve of the prevailing Jubail – Dammam line, which can be presently underway, and would require 35km of latest monitor development
Part 3: improve of the Dammam – Riyadh fundamental line, which incorporates the development of 87km of latest monitor
Part 4: development of the Riyadh bypass, which can join the prevailing community within the north of the town to the south and is break up into two packages: the primary has 67km of monitor and the second has 35km
Part 5: a brand new 950km line from Riyadh to Jeddah, which can proceed for 146km to King Abdullah Port, north of King Abdullah Financial Metropolis. The Riyadh – Jeddah part can have three intermediate stations at Jamuma, Moya and Al-Doadmi, and
Part 6: a brand new 172km line from King Abdullah Port to Yanbu Industrial Metropolis.
The mission will even embrace the development of seven logistics centres at Jubail Industrial Metropolis Logistics Centre, Damman Logistics Dry Port, a relocated Riyadh Dry Port, King Khalid Airport Logistics Centre in Riyadh, Jeddah Logistics Dry Port, King Abdullah Port Logistics Centre and Yanbu Industrial Metropolis Logistics Centre.
SLCC was shaped by SAR and China Civil Engineering Development Firm (CCECC) with Al-Ayuni named as a neighborhood associate. The opposite members are Systra, Hitachi (beforehand Thales), WSP, Aldhabaan & Companions, the native associate of British regulation agency Eversheds & Sutherland, ALG Infrastructure, and Calx Consultancy.
Regardless of the MoU, tangible progress remained restricted, particularly because the Covid-19 pandemic took maintain. Thankfully, the Landbridge continued to be a precedence infrastructure mission for the Saudi authorities and acquired a lift when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud confirmed the federal government’s dedication to the scheme in the course of the launch of Saudi Arabia’s Nationwide Transport and Logistics Technique in June 2021.
There was hope that work would get underway in 2024 after a consortium of Italy’s Italferr, Sener, Spain, and Hill Worldwide was confirmed as the popular bidder for a mission administration companies contract in December 2023. But practically a yr later, this contract has nonetheless not been signed.
Talking to IRJ at InnoTrans, Al-Malik stated the sheer scale of the mission, mirrored in its estimated price of greater than Riyals 70bn ($US 18.64bn), signifies that supply is sophisticated. “A mission of that measurement requires plenty of evaluation, analysis and coordination between totally different native stakeholders,” he says, however rapidly hinting {that a} breakthrough is shut. “Progress has been made and we anticipate some bulletins quickly,” Al-Malik says.
Al-Malik reveals that the Landbridge is the centrepiece of a wider programme of labor to develop the prevailing 5500km SAR community to over 8000km. Whereas an extension of the Medina – Jeddah – Mecca Haramain high-speed line is “an possibility,” it’s not a precedence, in line with Al-Malik. As an alternative, the main target is on increasing the capability of the prevailing community. He factors to the current Request for Proposals (RFP) for the provision of 15 diesel push-pull trains for the North-South Railway, which follows a contract positioned earlier this yr with Stadler for 10 175m-long inter-city trains with an possibility for 10 extra. An analogous RFP has additionally been issued for brand spanking new wagons, whereas an upcoming RFP will cowl work to help tasks to develop infrastructure within the north and east of the nation, Al-Malik reviews, directing potential suppliers to the railway’s web site for extra info.
“Lots of of hundreds of thousands of Riyals shall be spent on these tasks,” Al-Malik says.
Whereas the emphasis presently stays on diesel fairly than hydrogen propulsion, Al-Malik expresses his enthusiasm for this different traction know-how and confirmed a plan to interact with the broader market following profitable trials with Alstom’s Coradia iLint practice in Saudi Arabia in 2023 (see panel under).
One other precedence infrastructure mission is the completion of the Saudi portion of the broader GCC railway community, which goals to attach all the GCC states by rail, and Al-Malik reveals that work has already been accomplished on 200km between Ras Al-Khair, Jubail and Dammam.
“We now have recognized the enterprise models which are near being prepared for privatisation.”
Bashar Khaled Al-Malik
As the most important portion of the general GCC community, progress in Saudi Arabia is crucial for the success of the scheme, which dates again to the early 2010s, and just like the Landbridge was stalled by the oil disaster. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has accomplished its hyperlink to the Saudi border at Ghuweifat, with work starting to select up on the cross-border connection to Oman. Cross-border hyperlinks to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar from Saudi Arabia are a bit additional behind. Nevertheless, Al-Malik says he believes that these nations will keep the course and comply with the lead of their GCC neighbours. SAR might even help their progress. Al-Malik says that as SAR’s capabilities and attain proceed to develop, it’s open to supply its companies and experience to worldwide tasks, though he expresses warning on the pace with which SAR will develop its remit.
“To start out off, it will likely be regional, with restricted scope,” he says, “as we try to handle what we’ve got available right this moment. We don’t need to develop too rapidly and impression on our ongoing actions.”
That SAR is ready to ponder such enlargement is testomony to its heavy funding in information switch and increase its personal base of experience. The cornerstone of those efforts is the Saudi Railway Polytechnic in Buraidah the place technical coaching of younger professionals takes place throughout a number of disciplines. Greater than 1300 engineers have certified from the institute to work for varied firms because it opened in 2014 and demand for locations is extraordinarily excessive; as much as 60,000 potential trainees apply for round 35 posts made out there by SAR every year, in line with the polytechnic’s common supervisor, Mr Sultan Abdullah Alsultan. He says this degree of demand displays the excessive standing of a profession on the railway in Saudi Arabia. All graduates are assured a job with SAR and lots of are drawn to work for a corporation actively contributing to the nation’s future improvement.
Al-Malik says that Saudi Arabians now account for 87% of SAR’s whole workforce and that native groups have taken on progressively extra advanced technical duties, together with upkeep of signalling gear, a difficult enterprise even on mature railway networks. “We’re progressing extraordinarily properly,” he says, including that the problem stays to maintain up with the pace of improvement in Saudi Arabia. “Every time we attain a stage the place we imagine that we’ve got all the experience required, we focus on a mission just like the Landbridge that requires an entire new firm to be developed to handle its execution, requiring much more human assets.”
SAR was merged with Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO), the unique operator of the Riyadh – Dammam line and lead developer of the Haramain high-speed line, to type a single railway firm in 2021. SAR itself was shaped in 2006 to steer the event of the North-South Railway and a key subsequent part in its evolution is the regular privatisation of the enterprise.
Al-Malik reveals that beneath SAR’s not too long ago prolonged technique, which now runs till 2035, privatisation of chosen enterprise models will start in 2026 and proceed till 2029 at which level operations shall be liberalised within the nation. The infrastructure will stay state-owned.
“We now have recognized the enterprise models which are near being prepared for privatisation and we’re getting ready the plans to begin these actions,” he stated. “We’re working intently with many native stakeholders, together with the regulator, the Transport Common Authority (TGA), and the Ministry of Transport and Logistics on this in addition to the general public funding fund, the proprietor of SAR. And we’re progressing as per the plan.”
Regular improvement of the railway over the previous 15 years or so is reflective of common developments in Saudi society. The nation’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 goals to extend financial, social and cultural diversification, together with shifting away from oil as the principle driver of GDP. Rail is enjoying a distinguished function in supporting the expansion of the nation’s mining sector. Improved transport infrastructure will equally help efforts to extend tourism, help Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, and enhance the general high quality life for Saudis.
SAR has already achieved an excellent deal, however as main infrastructure tasks and rolling inventory orders become visible within the coming years, arguably the most effective is but to return. Present trade pleasure concerning the Saudi market seems completely justified.
“The entire nation is present process a significant transformation,” Al-Malik says. “Transport and rail particularly are not any exception. In actual fact, they’re enablers of most of the Imaginative and prescient 2030 targets… and by having an environment friendly rail community, we’ll be certain that most of the targets recognized as a part of the imaginative and prescient are achieved.”
HYDROGEN traction made its debut within the GCC area final October with the profitable demonstration by Alstom of its iLint hydrogen multiple-unit on a 20km part of the East Hyperlink in Riyadh.
“We need to verify the outcomes of the primary trials and in addition develop our personal requirements, specs and necessities to run hydrogen trains within the nation and throughout the area,” Al-Malik says.
“The know-how itself remains to be evolving, so we’re anticipating to see enhancements as time passes. And thru our discussions with the rolling inventory suppliers, we’re additionally guaranteeing that no matter they’re planning to adapt is suitable and match for operation.”
SAR has been creating refuelling infrastructure for hydrogen trains, together with working intently with Alstom in the course of the trials. The railway is subsequently retaining an in depth eye on the event of home hydrogen manufacturing inside Saudi Arabia, which Al-Malik says is “a part of the plan.” Certainly, Imaginative and prescient 2030 goals to provide 1.2 million tonnes of inexperienced hydrogen, catering for 10% of worldwide demand, by 2030.
“It’s in our nationwide curiosity to turn into inexperienced and scale back emissions,” Al-Malik says. “Hydrogen is the proper match and that’s the reason we’re taking the lead within the area by higher understanding the know-how and guaranteeing that the suppliers are adopting our requirements.
“Every time we really feel that it’s the correct time to begin business operations with hydrogen, we shall be prepared.”
