Land Bridge Project

Bids by nine international consortia to build a $5 billion railroad that will link Saudi Arabia's Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts via Riyadh were whittled down to four in June.

The successful consortium will design, finance, build and operate a 570-mile railroad between Riyadh and Jeddah for a concessionary period of 30 years. There will be an additional 70-mile connection between Dammam and Jubail and the new railroad will be linked with the existing two lines running between Riyadh and Dammam.

The coast to coast railroad – known as the land bridge project - will reduce the transit time for freight from seven days by sea to less than 48 hours by train. It is the cornerstone of a plan to transform the kingdom's existing rail network, which is minimal at present, into a world-class freight and passenger system.

“Connecting Jeddah port on the Red Sea to the Dammam port on the Gulf coast, the two most important ports in the kingdom, will have a profound impact, not only on transport development but on economic development in Saudi Arabia in general,” says Dr Jobarah bin Eid Al-Suraisry, the Minister of Transport.

“There has been a huge growth in the size of container ships,” says Al-Suraisry. “Vessels that can carry up to 1,000 TEUs [twenty foot equivalent units] do not move from one port to another. They need to go from one mega-port to another mega-port, so we have done studies which we are now implementing. As a result, I have signed an agreement with two private sector companies, one Saudi and another Malaysian, to build a new terminal in Jeddah that will have a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs and this will be operational in only three years' time.

“The expansion of the port should be completed before the land bridge is finished, so before we have the trains moving from one port to the other we will have all the prerequisites.”

Al-Suraisry says that while there is stiff global competition between ports, he believes the expansion of Jeddah will give an important edge to the Saudi ports and that the railroad will also have a positive impact.

With regard to road transport, the minister says that a thousand miles of new highway will be completed and operational within a couple of years, and that work is being started this year on a further 5,000 miles.

“This business is not just about services,” says Al-Suraisry. “It is about the economy. It's about taking comparative advantage. One area cannot succeed if it is not connected to other areas. If agricultural centers do not have good roads to connect them to larger markets, they won't thrive and people will migrate to the cities.”

The minister says the only disappointment is the poor degree of involvement from the U.S. in the Saudi transport sector. “When we announced the land bridge project, we announced it everywhere, including in the American press, and we encouraged American companies to participate. But unfortunately we have not seen any interest.

“However, recently chief executives from some companies have come and we hope they will be involved. We always welcome them.”