The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) now ranks as the fifth most active region for rail projects, according to a recent report by GlobalData.

GlobalData is tracking railway construction projects globally, from the early pre-planning stages (announcement and study) through to execution, with a combined value of $5.7tn.

The railway project pipeline in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) totals $333.8bn in value with $253.4bn at the pre-execution and execution stages. According to the available data on the length of railway projects tracked by GlobalData, the pipeline has a combined length of 32,452km, of which projects in Algeria account for 13,862km, 4,342km are accounted for by projects in Egypt and 4,056km are accounted for by developments in Saudi Arabia.

Recent railway developments in the Mena region include the UAE starting the prequalification process for its planned high-speed rail network, Riyadh preparing to award a contract for the expansion of its metro network, and a Chinese contractor winning a contract to build a high-speed rail line in Morocco.  

North East Asia accounts for the largest share of global value, with a pipeline valued at $2.3tn. Western Europe ranks second with a project pipeline value of $674.9bn, followed by South Asia ($620.4bn) and North America ($600.2bn).

Between 2026 and 2028, spending on the currently tracked pipeline may reach an annual average of $586.4bn. Public investment finances the majority of rail projects globally, with 80.8% of the global pipeline funded by the public sector.

Projects financed through public-private partnerships account for 16.6% of the global pipeline, with the remaining 2.6% of projects financed solely by the private sector.