The GCC’s transport ministers are understood to meeting again in March to decide on a new timeline for the six countries’ regional rail network.

An unnamed source speaking to Riyadh-based Arab News said a more realistic date for the completion of the GCC railway will be the top agenda in next month’s ministerial meeting.

The original completion date for the 2,137-kilometre GCC rail network was set for 2018, which everyone now agrees is impossible to meet.

Abu Dhabi’s decision to suspend the tender for the second phase of its mainline rail in January has created major implications for the other domestic rail lines that were designed to comprise the regional rail network.

The suspension of Etihad Rail phase 2, which was designed to link with the Oman Railway network though Buraimi, is understood to have prompted the sultanate to focus mainly on building a domestic rail network.

The original timeline for the regional rail was understood to help keep the momentum going for Kuwait’s national railroad project, due to tender during the first quarter of 2016. Qatar’s long-distance rail is also expected to tender before the end of the first quarter of 2016.

Studies are also understood to be under way for the rail line along the King Fahd Causeway that will link Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.