The federal Union Railway has completed the alignment study for Dubai’s section of the $11bn national freight and passenger railway together with the emirate’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA).

Now is the appropriate time to start looking at what the [financing] options are and how best to do this

Richard Bowker, Union Railway

The mandate of Union Railway is to plan, design, construct and operate the UAE’s railway network.

The first phase of the railway involves building a 265-kilometre line to connect the Shah gas field in the south of the emirate with oil and gas processing facilities at Habshan in the southwest and will be used to transport 10,000 tonnes a day (t/d) of granulated sulphur. A later phase will go on to connect Habshan with distribution facilities at the port of Ruwais in the Western Region and will be used to transport 20,000 t/d of sulphur.

Union Railway is planning to issue the detailed prequalification packages for the first phase within the next couple of weeks having been slightly delayed since July (MEED 19:8:10).

A financial advisor to oversee the financing of the project is also likely to be appointed very soon.

“Now is the appropriate time to start looking at what the [financing] options are and how best to do this. We have an absolute commitment to make it happen and we just have to work to decide what the optimal financial solutions are,” says Richard Bowker, chief executive of Union Railway.

“I don’t think it will be one package, I think it will be a whole range of things and different bits of the network will be done in different ways.”

Separate plans for a high-speed link between Abu Dhabi and Dubai are also being discussed.

“We’re studying it and doing a big exercise on forecasting what the traffic might be. But it’s one of those projects that does genuinely require a lot of agencies to come together and we’re working closely with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport (DOT), the RTA in Dubai, the NTA [National Transport Authority] and ourselves,” Bowker says.

The line will also need to link up with the airports in both emirates.