Destination everywhere

How the advent of high-speed rail could transform the Gulf region. A report by Kuwait Financial Centre released earlier this year revealed that GCC nations are planning to invest a total of $109 billion on rail projects – many of them high-speed – in the next 10 years as officials look to solve traffic congestion issues.

"Already some of the countries in GCC have put forward plans for alternative transport systems such as the Dubai metro and Saudi Arabia's various rail plans," said the report. "We believe that this might result in relieving some amount of stress from the road network. Also, the pan-GCC railway planned at an overall cost of $60 billion will open lot of interesting opportunities for pan-GCC travellers."

At the moment, the only option to travel across GCC is either by road or by air. Saudi Arabia is currently the only GCC country to have a railway, although the network is still in the nascent stage, and while Dubai has recently launched its metro system, overall the region's rail infrastructure is virtually non-existent.

Nonetheless, the GCC region's growing population is increasing demand for transport infrastructure. Train services across the six GCC states will "facilitate movement and travel of GCC citizens - as well as expatriates - and boost regional trade," according to Mohammad Bin Obeid Al Mazroui, GCC assistant secretary-general for economic affairs. And he's not the only regional expert to recognise the inherent benefits in expanding the rail network.

"Rail can be looked at from three distinct perspectives: mass rapid urban transportation, long distance travel and freight movement," says V.G. Ramakrishnan, Senior Director of Frost & Sullivan's Automotive & Transportation Practice for South Asia, Middle East & North Africa. "Rail provides for quick, clean and rapid movement of passengers and goods over short and long distances, while the space required for putting up the infrastructure is considerably less compared to air or road transportation."

Studies have shown that the numbers of people that can be transported from Point A to Point B via rail also compares very favourably with rival modes of transport - a key consideration in a region where increasing population and population density figures in metropolitan cities is on the rise. "This is the prime driver for considering rail systems the world across," says Ramakrishnan.

Not only does rail provide for rapid urbanisation of the population, but it also helps major cities to attract additional investment. "Many countries in the Middle East are promoting service and manufacturing sectors in an attempt to diversify away from a reliance on oil and gas, and the growth of the middle-class in the region is a strong driver for the growth of railways. Both blue and white-collared workers, executives and their families need a reliable, reasonably priced and safe transportation system. Railways fulfil that need very well."

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THE NEED FOR SPEED

• Passengers using a pan-GCC railway due for completion in 2017 could be whisked along at 350kph under a proposal for a super-high-speed network
• A speed of 350kph is nearly 40 percent of the cruising speed of an Airbus A380 jetliner
• The speed jump from the planned 200kph would come at a steep price: the project cost would rise from $15bn to an estimated $25bn

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On track for growth

The region has been discussing the proposed GCC Rail Network for many years now, with good reason: many of the key ingredients for such a project - including good levels of cooperation between member nations, low barriers to conducting business and low barriers to cross-border trade - already exist. Nonetheless, in terms of infrastructure, Ramakrishnan believes there are a number of key requirements that need to be met for such a scheme to be a success.

"First, common gauge systems, track speed, signalling and operating systems will be essential for the network to be functional. And in addition, operational issues such as track speed and the use of technology to enhance efficiency will also need to be agreed upon and employed across nations to get the full benefit out of the system."

As a result, harmonisation will be key given that all six Gulf countries have plans to build their own national railways, which will eventually combine to form the 2177-km GCC network. "Nations in the region - particularly UAE and Saudi - are developing their economies and increasingly trying to attract investments in non-oil-based sectors," Ramakrishnan says. "These countries are the largest economic engines in the GCC and also have large populations in regional terms. Competition for resources will increase and managing conflict will be a critical challenge that needs to be overcome - just witness the fallout from the common currency debacle. Effective policy and a cohesive operational framework will be required to ensure smooth operation of the proposed GCC Rail Network, while how the benefits will be shared by nations (for example, key positions, shareholding, local employment, vendor contracts, headquarters, etc.) will also need to be handled carefully."

Moves to start tendering on phase one of the inter-emirates rail network show the UAE scheme is steaming ahead of its neighbours. If state rail company Union Railway can complete the first phase of its $11 billion rail network within the ambitious timeframe it has set for itself, the company will have set the standard not only for the UAE railway, but also the planners behind the GCC's five other rail projects.

By incorporating industrial projects into the 264km scheme, Union Railway has set a template for the regional development of rail projects. The line supports state energy giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's ongoing production programmes at the Shah and Habshan oil and gas fields, and later phases will contribute significantly to the development of the oil, natural gas and petrochemical industries in the UAE. The rail network will then grow to encompass 100 locomotives and 5000 freight wagons by 2017, transporting cargo and people in equal measures. None of the UAE's neighbours have yet reached such an advanced phase on any of their rail projects.

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BAHRAIN

Completion: 2030
Cost: $8 billion
Length: 184km

The network will include light rail trains, monorails, trams and other systems, to be developed in phases by 2030. A feasibility study for the project is due to be completed by late 2010.

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QATAR

Completion: 2026
Cost: $23 billion
Length: 600km+

Plans include include a line connecting Ras Laffan and Mesaieed, a high-speed link across the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, a freight link to the GCC network and a Doha metro network.

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KUWAIT

Completion: TBC
Cost: $11.4 billion
Length: 683km

Alongside the construction of a 165km, four-line metro network, five passenger and freight lines are also currently under consideration, with a total length of 518km of double track.

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OMAN

Completion: TBC
Cost: TBC
Length: 475km

Phase one includes three lines: Section 1 will extend from Muscat to Sohar, Section 2 from Sohar to Khatmat Malaha, and Section 3 from Sohar to Al Ain, with a secondary link to Buraimi.

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UAE

Completion: 2017
Cost: $11 billion
Length: 1300km

The network will link the seven emirates and their industrial clusters. Phase one is planned as a 270km link between the Shah gasfield in Al Gharbia and the Ruwais oil and chemicals complex.

 

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HARAMAIN HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT

What: A double-line high-speed rail system that will link the Muslim holy cities of Medina and Mecca via King Abdullah Economic City, Jeddah and King Abdulaziz International Airport. It will connect with the national network at Jeddah.
Why: The railway is expected to carry three million passengers a year, including many Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, helping to relieve traffic congestion on the roads.
Line length: 444km
Operating speed: 320km/h
Capacity: 38,000 passengers daily
Start date: March 2009
ETA: November 2012

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SAUDI LANDBRIDGE PROJECT

What: A cargo and passenger railway that will link Jeddah on the Red Sea coast with the ports of Dammam and Jubail on the Gulf coast, via the capital Riyadh.
Why: The Saudi Landbridge will primarily be a freight/container line interoperable with the North-South railway link, but will also offer overland passenger transport.
Line length: 1065km in total
Operating speed: 220km/h (passengers); 120km/h (freight)
Capacity: 300 million passengers/one billion tonnes per year
Start date: January 2005
ETA: TBC

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METRO MANIA

On 9 September 2009, Dubai opened the first phase of the city's metro project. Running the length of the city, the Red Line offers a swift, affordable alternative in a city that has been desperately short of public transport infrastructure. "Metro projects are expensive by their very nature and require critical mass to justify investment," says Ramakrishnan. "The final objective of Dubai Metro is to link Dubai with Abu Dhabi and connect the manufacturing hub of the UAE with the financial and service hub of Dubai along with Jebel Ali, and a very strong link between all key sectors of the economy is being developed."

He believes this kind of strong linkage will be essential for nations in the region to put more metro systems in. "Some nations will invest in a metro to keep the competition with Dubai going, but from a financial standpoint we need those certain linkages to be in place for further investments in metro systems to be attractive over the long-term," he says. "For example, Qatar is adopting an integrated transportation approach with rail providing just one element of the transportation infrastructure. This may be one of the options to make projects viable in the region."

Whatever their approach and whatever their resources, across the region from Casablanca to Tehran, the major cities of the Middle East are launching or overhauling plans for inner-city metro schemes to address years of underinvestment in the transport sector. Abu Dhabi's 2030 Surface Transport Masterplan - incorporating a line connecting Ras Laffan and Mesaieed, a high-speed link across the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, a freight link to the GCC network and a Doha metro light-rail network - is painstakingly methodical. Kuwait has ambitious plans for a 165km, four-line metro network. Even the long-dormant plan for a $3 billion Baghdad Metro has been dusted off, to some incredulity, with selected international groups receiving documents from the Baghdad Mayoralty requesting expressions of interest in revising the masterplan for future development.

Indeed, it seems the only hurdle to the wide-scale implementation of metro systems across the region is the global economic downturn, which has had a brutal impact on the projects market in every sector since last year. "There are a number of challenges involved in getting rail projects across the region up and running, including investment and the rate of return on such projects, the long gestation period required for returns to flow, and the critical mass of passengers," confirms Ramakrishnan. "Rail projects are a long-term commitment and investments are made with a 10-15-year horizon, but undoubtedly the global slowdown would have forced a critical re-evaluation of the assumptions and financial projections associated with rail and metro projects in the region."

For instance, having picked up the tab itself for the Red and Green lines of the Dubai Metro, the emirate's Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has indicated it plans to issue the forthcoming Purple Line as a public-private partnership. And with Dubai's real estate boom brought to a shuddering halt and many of the projects on the outskirts of the city now shelved or cancelled, RTA officials say they will consider re-routing the Purple Line away from these areas.

Even so, the appetite for such schemes remains high, and the projects currently underway represent a sea change in the region's attitude to rail transport and have the potential to revolutionise trade networks from the GCC to the Levant to North Africa.

• Dubai Metro Red Line completed in 49 months
• 154 contracting companies employed in the construction of the Red Line
• 30,000 workers employed in construction of Red and Green lines
• Three million passengers used the system in the first two months of operation
• 57,000 trips per day were made on average in first two months of operation