Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) has combined the list of prequalified firms for the contract to operate and maintain the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram.

The new list of prequalified firms comprises:

• MTR Corporation (Hong Kong)
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) - West Japan Railway Company (JR West) / Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan)
• Serco (UK)
• Transdev (France)
• RATP Dev (France) / Keolis (France) 
• Arriva (UK) / DB International (Germany)

In December 2015, Qatar Rail announced two separate lists of prequalifiers for each scheme.

Previously, the UK/German consortium of Arriva and DB International was prequalified only for the Lusail Tram. The UK’s National Express, which was included in the list of prequalified firms to bid for the Lusail Tram, has been dropped from the list.

France’s Transdev is now prequalified as a single entity, whereas the previous list included the firm’s Irish subsidiary, Transdev Dublin, in partnership with South Korea’s Seoul Line 9.

Some of the prequalified firms have already won deals to operate and manage rail schemes in the GCC, either solely or in partnership with a local firm.

Etihad Rail DB, a joint venture of UAE’s Etihad Rail and Germany’s DB International, runs the first phase of the Etihad Rail, for which commercial operations began on 1 January.

A Serco-led team was awarded a $185m contract in February 2015 for the managemement and technical support for operations of the North-South Railway in Saudi Arabia.

Serco also operates the metro, tram and monorail systems in Dubai.

Expected to become operational by 2019, the first phase of the Doha Metro involves the construction of 37 stations, 63 kilometres of tunnelling work, and about 18km of elevated and at-grade track.

On 30 March, Qatar Rail announced the completion of tunnelling work on the Doha Metro Green line, which terminates at the Al-Messila Education City station. Education City is the last underground station on the Green line before moving towards the above-ground station in Al-Riffa. The Green line runs 19km underground and 3km above ground.