Saudi high-speed rail delayed by one year

22 June 2016

Haramain High-Speed Rail was set for early 2017 completion

The Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) has granted the consortium that is supplying rolling stock and systems for the 450-kilometre second phase of the Haramain High-speed Rail (HHR) a 14-month extension to complete the work.

This was disclosed by Spain’s Public Works MInister Ana Pastor, according to an international trade media report.

The delay means the target completion date for this phase of the HHR has been moved from January 2017 to the first quarter of 2018, according to International Railway Journal citing Renfe, which will operate the 450km line that will link Mecca with Jeddah and Medina.

A consortium led by the local Al-Shoula Group signed an $8.2bn deal for the supply of rolling stock, systems and a 10-year operation and maintenance contract, among others, to the HHR project in 2012. The other members of the group include six Spanish companies: Talgo, Indra, OHL, Dimetronic, Renfe and Adif.

Technical problems such as the challenging climate and topography are presumed as key factors for the project delay.

The SRO has also agreed to settle the payment of arrears lasting several months to the Al-Shoula consortium, Pastor said.

Rolling stock supplier Talgo announced in July 2015 that the $200m deal it had signed five months earlier with SRO for the supply of six high-speed trains had been cancelled. It is understood no clear explanations were given for the cancellation at the time.

However, local news sources had said the trains were expected to begin test runs from the main station in Jeddah this month.

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.

In 2015, MEED reported that the 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.

SRO is one of two agencies overseeing Saudi Arabia’s long-distance rail projects. It was recently merged with the Public Transport Authority (PTA), in a decision in line with the implementation of Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP).

 

 

 

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