Efforts to Pursue Modal Change in Saudi Arabia to Rail

The Saudi Railway Organisation is planning on building 9900 km of railways in the next 16 years. It is hoped that the availability of trains will break the country’s addiction to cars.

With car fuel some of the cheapest per litre in the world, Saudi Arabia’s population tend to drive out of preference to public transport. With congestion becoming a major issue in its ever growing big cities, the authorities are trying to encourage modal shift from transport by car to rail.

Metro networks are being built or extended in Jeddah, Dammam, Riyadh and Mecca, with passenger train systems being planned across the country to encourage people to travel longer distances by train.

One of the major pushes for travellers will be safety. Many are killed on Saudi’s roads due in part to young men pushing high performance cars to the max. With 3 million pilgrims visiting Mecca every year, congestion is another push.

With new public transport systems in place, there is a definite likelihood that travellers in the Kingdom will travel by train rather than by road.