Haramain high-speed test runs to commence this month

01 June 2016

Most of track work on first phase has been completed

High-speed trains on Saudi Arabia’s Haramain railway are expected to begin test runs from the main station in Jeddah this month.

This complements the ongoing test runs on the line extending between Medina and Rabigh, according to a local media report.

Some 90 per cent, or 429 kilometres, of the track work for the first phase of the scheme had been finished as of May. Apart from the track, an overpass with seven tracks measuring 2,500 metres in length and 70 metres wide, passing above the third ring road in Mecca, has also been completed.

Two bridges, both connecting to Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International airport (KAIA) railway station, have also been completed.

 Artist's rendition of a station serving Saudi Arabia’s Haramain Railway

Artist’s rendition of a station serving Saudi Arabia’s Haramain Railway

Artist’s rendition of a station serving Saudi Arabia’s Haramain Railway

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) is currently working to set up six substations along the train route to supply the trains with power.

It is understood the fifth train for the network arrived in April. The procurement of 35 trains is included in the second phase of the project, won in 2012 by a consortium led by the local Al-Shoula Group, which signed a $7.9bn deal for the rolling stock and systems. The other members of the group include six Spanish companies: Talgo; Indra; OHL; Dimetronic; Renfe; and Adif.

However, rolling stock supplier Talgo announced in July 2015 that the $200m deal it had signed five months earlier with Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) for the supply of six high-speed trains had been cancelled.

Originally planned to begin commercial operations in 2015, the Haramain high-speed rail scheme has fallen behind schedule.

In 2015, MEED reported that SRO had warned the Saudi/Spanish consortium that it could be removed from the project if delays continued. SRO is also understood to have asked the team in 2014 to offer an emergency plan that included increasing the equipment and manpower and other materials to accelerate work on the project.

Construction work on the $11bn passenger rail scheme began in 2009. The railway will comprise nearly 900km in its entirety, some 450km of which will connect the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, passing via Jeddah, Rabigh and King Abdullah Economic City. The line was envisaged to carry trains travelling at up to 300km an hour and will be used by an estimated 10 million visitors a year to the kingdom’s holy sites, providing an alternative point of arrival to the Jeddah airport.

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