Saudi Railways Organization (SRO), which operates the Dammam-Riyadh rail link and is the owner of the Haramain high-speed rail (HHR) project, has now been merged into the kingdom’s Public Transport Authority (PTA).

The merger has been approved by the Saudi cabinet, according to a local media report on 28 March.

Saudi Transport Minister Abdullah al-Muqbil will lead the PTA’s board of directors, whose members will include representatives from the interior, finance, transport, municipal and rural affairs, economy and planning, and commerce and industry ministries. The board wil also have three private sector representatives.

Created in July 2013, the PTA was established by the kingdom’s Council of Ministers to organise the country’s public transport system, including rail, and attract investments into the sector. Besides regulating, supervising and improving the standards of public transport, the PTA’s mandate is understood to also include reducing unnecessary expenditure.

SRO was led by Mohamed Khalid al-Suwaiket. In 2010, it created the Saudi Railway Masterplan, which covers the period up to 2040. Key targets include exploring the use of public-private partnerships (PPP) in the development of a national railway network, as well as building rail links into neighbouring countries to support economic growth and diversification. Plans also eventually call for the privatisation of SRO and accelerating investments to improve its capacity to support national development.

Apart from the 450-kilometre HHR between Mecca and Medina, SRO is also the project owner of the 2,400km North-South Railway between Al-Jouf and Riyadh.

SRO is different from Saudi Railway Company (SAR), which is a project firm established to oversee the new minerals railway and its expansion into Jubail and Dammam.