Saudi Arabia is currently looking at ways to make their public transport projects more attractive to the private sector, Abdulaziz al-Ohaly, president of Saudi Arabia’ Public Transport Authority (PTA), told a conference in Dubai on 26 April.

Attracting investments into the transport sector has been a key mandate of PTA, which recently merged with the Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO).

“One has to remember that 100 per cent of existing public infrastructure in Saudi Arabia is funded by the government,” Al-Ohaly told MEED. “To move from this framework to a new one will require a very detailed consideration in terms of the economic viability of… other options. Our priority is to keep public transport affordable and fairly priced for consumers.”

Al-Ohaly acknowledged that the absence of data in terms of ridership and the greenfield nature of many projects ranging from bus rapid networks to urban rail systems presents a challenge in terms of attracting private sector investments.

He said the PTA, along with the public transport agencies at the municipality level, will study all the options available in terms of funding future projects including station branding, which was adopted by the Dubai Metro. “We will eventually adopt a model that is most feasible and suitable to our market. It is not unlikely that we will decide to implement something new and unique to fit our requirements, or that each city wil adopt a different [funding] model,” the executive added.

The kingdom’s five most densely populated cities including Riyadh, Mecca, Jeddah, Medina and Dammam have begun developing an integrated public transport plans. Al-Ohaly said the next phase of the kingdom’s public transport strategy will include more remote municipalities like Taif, where the population exceeds 1 million.

On the merger with SRO, Al-Ohaly said unifying the regulatory agencies for rail and other forms of public transport modes will be beneficial to the sector.