New inter-city trains herald rail renaissance for Iraq

Investment in new Chinese-made inter-city trains, as well as modern train control and communication systems, signal the Iraqi government’s intention to rebuild the once impressive state‑run railways.

Chinese-made train for Baghdad-Basra route

By Peter Feuilherade

This article was first published in The Middle East magazine, London, May 2014 issue.

2014 marks the centenary of Iraq’s railway network. German engineers laid the foundations during the Ottoman Empire in 1912, as part of the planned Berlin-Istanbul-Baghdad Railway. The line was completed in 1914, connecting Baghdad with the town of Dujayl, 60 km to the north. By the late 1990s, the network was handling some three million tonnes of freight and 2.8 million passenger journeys a year.

Now Iraq’s railways, like much of the transport infrastructure, are dilapidated after decades of neglect and war, and in urgent need of repair and expansion. Most freight is transported by road.

The assets of Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR), owned and operated by the government, include about 2,850 km of track, some 127 stations, 131 locomotives and 1,900 units of rolling stock.

Several lines are still in use, from Baghdad to Basra, Samarra and Fallujah, and Mosul to Rabia, among others, providing a mix of passenger and freight services.

Upgrading the network and restoring other lines are priorities in the government’s reconstruction efforts. However, railway company officials cited by Reuters news agency admitted in 2013 that the volumes of passengers and freight carried did not generate enough income to cover employees' salaries, let alone revamp the network.

The delivery of the first of a fleet of 10 Chinese-made inter-city trains in February 2014 marked a major step forward in the plan to restore and develop Iraq’s national railway system. The contract is worth US$ 115 million, and each train will comprise two diesel power cars and eight steel bodied trailers. The trains will run on the Baghdad-Basra route at speeds of up to 160 km/h. They will have a capacity of 343 passengers in air-conditioned seated and sleeping accommodation, with catering facilities and on-board entertainment. The trains have been designed to function in the high temperatures and wind-blown dust of Iraq’s desert environment.

In 2012 IRR finished building a 32 km line between Mussayab, south of Baghdad, and the holy city of Karbala to transport hundreds of thousands of pilgrims during Shi’i religious festivals.

The company has also invested US$ 60 million in a state of the art computer based train control and microwave communication system.

Regional transit hub

IRR plans to rehabilitate some 300 km of railways in central and southern Iraq, build other lines in major cities to link them to the national network, and construct a metro system with 14 stations in Baghdad.

Iraq also aspires to become a transit hub for goods that would be shipped from Asia to Iraq's neighbours and beyond, by connecting to the planned US$ 16 billion GCC railway network (due for completion in 2018), transporting freight to Europe via Turkey.

A vast project under way at the port of Faw in southern Iraq is seen as having global strategic significance. Planned rail routes will take freight from Asia, via Faw and other Iraq ports, through Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan and on to Europe via Turkey, bypassing the Suez Canal and reinforcing the importance of the Middle East as a major hub of international commerce.

On a regional level, negotiations continue intermittently to establish rail links with other neighbours like Turkey, Jordan and Iran. The expansion of Jordan’s container terminal at the port of Aqaba includes plans for direct rail access to Iraq. A new line is also planned from Basra to Khorramshahr in Iran’s Khuzestan province.

Iraqi Republic Railways estimates that if its planned rail projects were completed at an estimated grand total of more than US$ 60 billion, some 25 million tons of goods could eventually pass through Iraq every year.

However, specific funding has yet to be committed, and financing on such a large scale is unlikely for the time being. In recent years annual allocations by the government for railway projects have not exceeded US$ 200 million.

Nevertheless, Iraq's economy is growing strongly as it has the world fourth largest oil reserves and is one of the fastest-growing suppliers to global oil markets. The International Monetary Fund expects oil exports to increase to US$ 152 billion in 2018, while according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Iraq’s economic growth will be over 9% on average in 2014-18.

But while in the long term Iraq could well afford to spend the billions of dollars required to revamp its railways, other problems need to be overcome before the rail sector can flourish again. Many traders prefer to transport their goods using private road haulage companies, who offer door‑to‑door services while most train stations are far from city centres. And the volatile security situation in parts of Iraq makes foreign companies wary of signing up to joint rail ventures

Future spending on railway reconstruction and development in Iraq is likely to be far lower than the hundreds of billions of dollars that its GCC neighbours are investing in an integrated railway network as well as light rail and urban metro projects, as they diversify their economies away from oil and gas and also position themselves as regional transport hubs.

But project opportunities in Iraq’s rail sector could still add up to dozens of billions of dollars. As well as the supply of track, rolling stock, signalling and maintenance equipment, “investment in supporting facilities such as inter-modal container terminals and corporatization of operations under a unified management contract continue to be areas of interest for Iraq’s rail system,” according to a 2013 US government guide to Doing Business in Iraq.

Israeli green light for controversial Eilat line

 

By Peter Feuilherade

 

This article was first published in MENA Rail News on 8 October 2013

 

Ignoring objections from Israel’s Environmental Protection Minister, a coalition of activists and environmentalists, economists and even the former head of Mossad, the country’s powerful intelligence agency, a ministerial committee on 6 October approved the building of a twin-track high-speed railway line linking Tel Aviv and the port of Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba.

 

No budget costings were included in the announcement, but latest estimates are in excess of 5.6 billion US dollars. Construction work on the 350-km line, which would carry passengers as well as freight, will take an estimated 10 years. If completed, it will be the most expensive transport project in Israel’s 65-year history.

The scheme is being pushed by Transport Minister Yisrael Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says it would have great strategic significance for Israel. But Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz opposes the project, arguing it would harm the environment. The line, with trains travelling at 250 km per hour, “is liable to turn into a fast track to destroying nature in the Negev [desert] and damaging the Gulf of Eilat,” Peretz said in a joint statement with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. Other critics say the project will also divert resources that could be spent on improving public transport in urban areas.

Giving details of the route, Israeli business news website Globes reported that the first 90‑km section of the line from Tel Aviv to Beersheva was already completed, and the second 35‑km section to Dimona required a second line. The website added: “The third 65‑km section from Dimona to Hatzeva will be especially difficult, with a doubling of the existing track to Nahal Zin and 9.2 km of tunnels to reach the Arava. The fourth 160‑km section will run to the northern entrance to Eilat, where the new port channel will be built. The line will not reach the current port. In addition to the tunnels, the route will require 63 bridges extending over 4.5 km.”

The announcement made no mention of a link with Israel’s Mediterranean port of Ashdod, creating a “land bridge” between Europe and Asia, which had been touted as the project’s main purpose. Options for linking the railway to the ports are expected to be discussed later.

Netivei Yisrael, Israel’s national roads company, says the proposed rail link is not meant to compete with Egypt’s Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. However, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted estimates that Israel’s planned rail line would allow for “hundreds of thousands of crates of goods to travel between the two continents as well. In addition, Israel will be able to import more than 200,000 cars using the cargo train and export five million tons of chemicals.”

Foreign interest

According to Globes, the Prime Minister's Office director‑general Harel Locker is in favour of financing the project as part of an agreement between governments, rather than through a tender in the normal way. The Chinese, French and Spanish governments are interested in the project, and tentative plans are for the project to be managed by a Chinese company that would build and operate the railway line.

However, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said Chinese involvement might damage Israel’s ties with the United States and Europe. He warned that if China “actively controlled” the track between Eilat and Ashdod, and the port that the government wants to build in Eilat, it would create a situation in which China would control “political and economic pressure points” within Israel.

In response, Israel's Transport Ministry said: “The government of Israel views positively the interest of the Chinese in the Eilat railway project, and is promoting economic ties with China, something that does not go against the close ties that Israel shares with the United States.”

The latest decision suggests that Netanyahu’s argument in favour of the project’s strategic importance for Israel is taking precedence – for the time being, at least – over the economic counter‑view that a route offering both passenger and freight transport would not be financially feasible.

Winning hearts and minds of GCC public transport users

 

 

 

By Peter Feuilherade

 

This article was first published in MENA Rail News on 24 September 2013.

 

In the next decade, the population of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is forecast to soar by 30% to over 50 million people – and more than 85% of them will be living in urban areas, according to the UN. Governments in the region are spending billions of dollars on public transport infrastructure and services, to divert traffic from roads and reduce air and noise pollution.

The total planned investment in railways, metros and trams in the Gulf states over the next 10 years is put at almost $150 billion. In addition to a GCC-wide rail network that aims to connect all six states by 2018, almost $30 billion worth of contracts have been awarded in recent months alone to build metro services in the capitals of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while metro projects are also under way in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.

The benefits to the economy – including greater efficiency due to reduced traffic, and significant cuts to travel times – are self-evident.

But as growing populations and increasing prosperity boost car ownership, luring commuters away from private vehicles and taxis and persuading them to switch to public transport is a major challenge.

While in London, for example, public transport is used for about half of all journeys, only about 2% of Riyadh’s six million residents currently use public transport. The figures for Jeddah and Bahrain are 4% and 5% respectively. Dubai, with the most developed public transit network in the GCC, reported 165 million journeys in the first half of 2013, or almost 12% of potential users. By 2030, when construction of Dubai’s 422‑km metro and tram network is completed, the aim is to achieve a user rate of 30%.

Mattar al‑Tayer, head of Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), said in July 2013 that residents of the emirate and visitors “do grasp the benefits and advantages of using public transport means, including the psychological and physical relief of riders, reducing traffic accidents, cutting expenses on fuel and maintenance of private vehicles, and avoiding the hassles of finding parking space…”

But many factors are still impeding greater take-up of public transport across the GCC, including poor public perceptions, heavy dependence on private cars and taxis, the absence of standard policies and regulations and the lack of private sector capacity to support this rapid development.

With fuel prices in the region among the cheapest in the world, heavily subsidized by governments, this only serves to promote the continued high use of privately-owned vehicles.

Public attitudes towards the curtailment of subsidies remain resistant to change, but the option of raising fuel prices to promote greater use of public transport is beginning to appear on the political agenda. In August 2013, Saudi Arabia's High Commission for the Development of Riyadh mooted raising fuel prices to make more motorists use public transport. "High fuel prices will prompt a considerable number of private car owners to depend on the metro and buses for their commuting," the Saudi newspaper Arab News quoted the commission as saying. Riyadh is also considering imposing fees for car parking to discourage people from using private vehicles.

Another option is road tolls. In 2007, Dubai was the first city in the region to introduce toll systems on some major roads, but surveys have shown that many Dubai residents remain reluctant to use public transport until it becomes considerably cheaper than personal transport.

Qatar, for its part, has ruled out parking fees or congestion charges, saying they are not feasible until people have safe public transport options.

Raising attractiveness

If coercive measures against car use are to be avoided in an oil‑producing region where the public expect low taxes and import duties, the alternative must be to make using public transport more attractive.

A July 2013 report by global consulting firm Booz & Co said the convenience of passengers was paramount, and customers wanted public transportation that was easy to access and use, as well as being pleasant to ride. “To reach a sustainable level of usage, a metro in the GCC should heed lessons from successful systems that have proper feeds from high-frequency bus services and taxis, as well as ‘park and ride’ facilities for car users. Station and vehicle cleanliness and comfort are also critical to attract riders from all socioeconomic classes,” the report added.

Riyadh’s new 177‑km six-line metro network, due for completion in 2019, is described as the world's biggest current investment in public transport. The Riyadh Development Authority has hired some top international architects to design stations intended to be “tranquil oases for travel, shopping and dining”, to place the metro at the heart of life in the Saudi capital. One of the stations, Olaya, will feature elevated public gardens and an undulating roof inspired by desert sand dunes. Ibrahim al-Sultan, the official supervising the project, told Reuters news agency that the metro will "enhance the quality of life" of Riyadh's six million inhabitants.

Riyadh metro to enhance "quality of life"

Some Saudi women see the new metro as offering them greater independence by overcoming the ban on women driving in the Kingdom. The Riyadh metro will include "family class" carriages, intended to give women privacy and peace of mind like the "ladies only" carriages on metros in Dubai and Cairo, among others.

The Dubai Metro, too, plans to extend sections reserved for women and children in carriages during peak hours, after complaints and surveys found that these were often more congested than the rest of the train.

A statement by the RTA in August 2013 said the number of women and children travelling on the Metro had increased noticeably, “thanks primarily to the growth in the public transportation culture among the public from different social cross-sections”.

Constant connectivity is another essential, now that technological achievements mean public transport users worldwide expect to be able to use smartphones and tablets during journeys, as well as receive up to date travel information via smart technologies, on social media as well as display screens in carriages, on platforms and station concourses, shops and restaurants.

Dr Muna Hamdi, founder and leader of Intelligent Mobility: Future Vision (iMFV) and ITS Arab director of research, told MENA Rail News that the first priority for GCC public transport planners should be multi-modal connectivity, providing seamless travel for people and goods between transport networks.

Dr Hamdi also stressed the need for integrated planning and regulation at the GCC level.

“The most important step is to develop a multi-modal GCC regional strategy that takes into account the rapid change in technology (planning flexibility) and economic growth, as well as environmental and cultural aspects of a healthy and prosperous society. The lack of convenient travel options for a considerable time in the Arab region, personal wealth and the availability of fuel have encouraged dependency on personal transport,” she said, adding that “adaptation to the local culture user needs and aspirations” was paramount.

But experts caution that planners in the GCC must be realistic about how many people will use public transport. The Booz & Co report predicts that in the light of the current strong car culture in the region and its far‑flung populations, public transport is unlikely to account for more than 30% of motorized trips in GCC cities.

 

“Even to reach that figure, treble the current level, transport authorities will have to do more than build public transport systems based on demand and transit-oriented development. They will need a holistic approach based on integrated modes of transportation, customer convenience, reduced private-car use, private-sector involvement, and an integrated planning and regulatory framework,” the Booz report concluded.

Could rail be a viable outlet for South Sudan’s oil exports?

By Peter Feuilherade

This article was first published in MENA Rail News on 13 July 2013

 

Flag of South Sudan

The latest flare-up between Sudan and its landlocked neighbour South Sudan over cross-border flows of oil via pipelines raises the issue of whether building a railway line to export South Sudan’s oil via Kenya instead could turn out to be a better long-term option.

In June, Sudan threatened to block exports of crude oil from South Sudan via pipelines controlled by the government in Khartoum, following renewed claims that South Sudan was supporting rebels operating across the shared border. The allegations are denied by the government in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, which is the world’s newest nation. When South Sudan gained independence from Khartoum in 2011 after a 22-year civil war, Sudan lost 75 per cent of its oil production overnight, but retained the pipeline infrastructure, as well as the refineries and export terminal at Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This is currently the only way that South Sudan, the most oil‑dependent country in the world, can get its oil to market.

After the row was defused at the end of June, South Sudan shipped its first oil cargo through Sudan to international markets since 2011. But tensions remain between the two countries, and it is very likely that oil exports from South Sudan will be interrupted again.

In late June, the presidents of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda agreed to build two pipelines across East Africa, one of which would run from South Sudan to Lamu port in northern Kenya. While this would give the Juba authorities a pipeline to the south, advocates of building a rail link to export South Sudan’s oil believe they have a strong case.

“Flexible, open-ended, expandable”

In 2012, two US academics and Sudanese specialists set out the case for building a railway line to connect South Sudanese oil fields to the Kenyan coast. But so far the proposal has not attracted interest either from the government in Juba or the international rail construction industry.

The railway project, if adopted, could put the new country on a path for resolving a host of pressing political and economic problems in a single blow, says Sharon Hutchinson, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. It could also represent an enormous business opportunity for international railway companies, she told MENA Rail News in an interview. 

Her vision is of a flexible, open-ended and expandable railway system that could begin with a route that would link South Sudan to Kenya (and Uganda) and then gradually expand, as income from oil export revenues and supplementary railway revenue streams grew, to encompass the entire country and become a force for economic growth throughout the extended region.  

She believes that a railway line could be built in stages that could gradually expand outwards from an initial cut to the coast in order to progressively link up with more and more regional urban hubs, such as Nairobi and Kampala and, later, perhaps, Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa. “Even more importantly, it could serve as a force of political and economic growth and unification by gradually interconnecting diverse domestic administrative centres and regions,” Hutchinson added, noting that there is already a rail line extending from Khartoum to Wau in South Sudan, which could be tied in and expanded as a more effective route northwards. 

Train travelling towards Wau

Recalling how railway construction during the colonial era had stimulated rapid economic development and growth in many African countries in the past, she said that “unlike a single purpose oil pipeline, a railway line would be able to create multiple revenue streams for both the state and people of South Sudan for generations to come.  It would enable South Sudan to create an increasingly diversified import and export economy.”

But Hutchinson warned that if government officials in South Sudan do not give the railway proposal more serious consideration at this stage, they may find it very difficult to "catch up" with neighbouring states later on, once the latter have taken the economic lead. 

Eric Reeves, a Sudan researcher and analyst at Smith College, Massachusetts, also believes South Sudanese officials have not taken the railway option seriously enough. He told MENA Rail News: “The real issue is the lack of a leadership which has to date failed to assess this key transportation decision in a realistic way.  The oil pipeline can carry more oil, but will take longer to build and is one‑way - it is useless for imports.”

In reply to arguments that South Sudan critically needs maximum oil revenues now, which an existing pipeline can provide, Reeves counters: “Even if a rail line monetizes the oil reserves more slowly, that's probably a good thing.  Too much money came in too fast to escape the blight of corruption.  And when the oil runs out, the pipeline will be useless - not so a rail line.”

In a February 2013 briefing paper entitled "Railway: A Better Option than Pipeline for South Sudan”, Samuel Nyuon Akoi Nyuon, an engineering student at Cornell University, pointed out that given its current economic predicament, South Sudan cannot afford to build roads, railways and a pipeline at the same time. “It must choose what to acquire first in order to stimulate the growth of her nascent economy. Looking at the three options, railway offers the best opportunity for restarting oil exports and stimulating long‑term economic growth,” he argued.

There is already a separate plan, the LAPSSET (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia) project, a $25 billion venture that envisages linking the Kenyan coastal town of Lamu to South Sudan and Ethiopia by building thousands of miles of roads, railways and oil pipeline over a time-scale of 17 years. Officials in Kenya, the driving force behind the project, are pinning their hopes on the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the African Union, as well as Chinese investment, to provide the finance. But funding for this ambitious mega-project is not assured.

Most North African Rail Markets Buoyant Amidst Uncertainty

This article appeared on MENA Rail News on 6 June 2013


By Peter Feuilherade - 6 June 2013


On top of high levels of unemployment and complex political transitions in North Africa, the weaknesses of European economies have affected those countries in the region that are dependent on European markets. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings, political and social tensions also continue in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. But infrastructure and construction projects are still of major importance, and a steady stream of new contracts in the rail sector in recent months is cause for optimism.

The African Economic Outlook 2013, published in May 2013, predicts that the economic climate in North Africa will generally improve in the near future. “Due to the resumption of oil production and exports, Libya’s GDP bounced back by 96% in 2012, boosting growth in North Africa to 9.5%, after the region’s GDP had stagnated in 2011,” the report notes. While in Egypt growth remains below pre-revolution levels, Tunisia’s economy recovered in 2012 and is forecast to grow by around 3.5% in 2013, rising to around 4.5% in 2014. Morocco and Mauritania are predicted to enjoy continued solid growth in 2013/14 at average rates of 6% and almost 5% respectively. In Algeria, growth is expected to accelerate from 2.5% in 2012 to above 3% in 2013 and 4% in 2014.





Although Egypt is plagued by a mounting economic crisis, the European Union has allocated US$ 160 million towards the development of the transport sector, onethird of which will fund construction of the third phase of the Cairo Metro. Grants totalling US$ 250 million from Kuwait and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development will support electronic signalling projects on the Banha-Zagazig line north of Cairo. And during a visit by Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to Moscow in April to drum up financial support, it was agreed that Russian companies would participate in rail and metro projects. However, Egypt’s railways remain plagued by outdated rolling stock and low safety standards, and it is difficult to see how a proposed high-speed train project, costing an estimated US$ 3.5 billion, will attract either local or foreign investors while the financial situation deteriorates.

TGV is Morocco’s most important transport project

Morocco's planned TGV routes

There is better news from the other side of North Africa, where both passenger and freight traffic in Morocco are on the increase. The construction of the 350-km high-speed rail (TGV) line between Tangier and Casablanca, in partnership with France, is regarded as the kingdom’s most important transport project. In April France’s Colas Rail and its subsidiary Colas Rail Maroc, as part of a consortium with Egis Rail, won a design-build contract for a 185-km double track highspeed line between Tangier and Kenitra. The total contract value is US$ 175 million, of which US$ 160 million are earmarked for Colas Rail and Colas Rail Maroc. A consortium comprising Ansaldo STS France and Cofely Ineo was awarded a US$ 155 million contract to design and supply signalling, train control and telecommunications systems for the line, which is scheduled to open during the first half of 2016.

Eventually the TGV network will extend over 1,500 km. According to the international business intelligence firm Oxford Business Group (OBG), “the move to set up a joint venture for TGV maintenance and establish a training institute will be a key driver in the Moroccan authorities’ bid to create a qualified local workforce with know-how for future ventures.”

New tram network in Oran

In May a new 18-km tram network opened in Oran, Algeria’s second city. The rail network in Algeria is currently concentrated in the north of the country and comprises 3,660 km of standard gauge and 1,140 of narrow gauge. The government plans to modernize the network and electrify existing rail operations, as well as develop a 1,300km highspeed east-west line that will run from Tunisia to Morocco, with branches connecting with major ports and cities. Algeria has allocated US$ 32 billion to the development of its rail infrastructure during the two five-year plans covering the decade from 2005 to 2014, Ministry of Transport spokesman Nassim Mustapha said in March 2013. Much of the expenditure will be spent linking the more developed rail networks in the north to towns in the less well-connected south. But officials admit that many rail projects have been held up owing to problems connected with “expropriation”. Political issues are also affecting the sector’s expansion, with Algerian newspaper Le Matin in March 2013 referring to “the state of tension which prevails in several towns in southern Algeria”.

In Tunisia, Colas Rail, in a consortium with Siemens and Tunisian firm Somatra-Get, won a US$ 187 million contract in February to build the first two lines of a high-speed railway network in the capital Tunis. Construction work on the project, financed by a consortium of international backers and the Tunisian government, is scheduled to start in mid-2014 and is expected to be completed in 2018.
Meanwhile, a definitive announcement is awaited from Libya about the future of stalled projects agreed before the revolution and valued at US$ 12 billion. Construction to build more than 2,000 km of new railway track would have been split between the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Russian Railways (RZhD). The Libya Herald newspaper reports that while CRCC remains silent on its future activities in Libya, RZhD has said it was “taking all possible steps to begin negotiations with Libya in order to discuss the future prospects for the resumption of the project and to develop a joint plan of action…“.

Long-term reforms

In the words of Ernst & Young’s Africa Attractiveness Survey (2013), “countries, such as Morocco, that are making substantial improvements in transport and logistics, are the ones that have implemented long-term and comprehensive reforms and investments across the transport and logistics supply chain.”
However, analysts say that the fallout from the Arab Spring revolutions continues to impede business across North Africa, even in countries like Algeria which did not go through a radical political upheaval.

John Hamilton, London office director of the business intelligence and consultancy company Crossborder Information, told MENA Rail News: “The common denominator is uncertainty created by political change and the lack of central authority… Across the whole region, the political shifts mean that investors and contractors will have to pay close attention to their local partners.”

Lines in the sand: Middle East rail projects on track

 

By Peter Feuilherade

The Middle East and North Africa is emerging as one of the fastest growing rail markets in the world. Major railway projects planned or under construction in the region during this decade are currently valued at around $160 billion. The growth of rail is seen as a major step in transforming economic development and trade by cutting freight delivery times and reducing road congestion.

 Also published in MENA Rail News
 

 

Planned rail projects in GCC (Source: Reuters)

 

This article was first published in The Middle East magazine, April 2013.

Until recently the region had one of the lowest density rail networks in the world, with most passengers and freight moving around by road, air or sea. In the century since sections of the Turkish-built Hejaz Railway from Damascus to Medina were damaged during World War I, railway development in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf has been overlooked because cheap fuel prices ensured that cars and trucks remained the favoured mode of transport for passengers and freight.

Only now is MENA emerging as one of the fastest growing rail markets in the world. The growth of rail is seen as a major step in transforming economic development and trade by cutting freight delivery times and reducing road congestion.

The highest growth rates are predicted in the GCC countries, which have ambitious plans to connect individual networks that they are currently building into a pan-Gulf railway grid which would link to the rest of the Middle East and ultimately via Turkey to Europe, and also potentially to Central Asia.

Qatari railways chief Saad Al Muhannadi said at the Middle East Rail conference in Dubai in February 2013 that an integrated rail link between the Gulf and Europe could be ready within five years, “but this will depend on the decisions made by heads of state and economic conditions in the countries involved” – and presumably also on the outcome of the conflict in Syria, with its rail links to the north with Turkey. A GCC Railways Authority may also be created by 2014 to coordinate the individual national projects.

The region’s major economies have each earmarked dozens of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects ranging from major mainline ventures in Iran ($34 billion), Saudi Arabia (over $30 billion) and the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar ($13 to 14 billion each) to more modest national projects. High-speed passenger rail services are planned in Morocco and Iran. Egypt, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among others, are also pressing on with metro/light rail projects aimed at delivering efficient public transport that can help ease traffic congestion and air pollution in urban areas.

The sector offers a wealth of opportunities for international engineering, construction, rolling stock and communication companies and consultancies across much of the MENA region.

Main projects

Large-scale rail projects across the MENA region are expected to add another 35,000 km of network in the next five years. According to Dr Amjad Bangash, head of rail for the global construction giant Bechtel, the region's mainline rail network is set to almost double in size over the coming decades, while metro, tram and monorail track lengths will increase tenfold.

Saudi Arabia has three major projects under way. The North-South Railway, a passenger and freight rail line from the capital Riyadh in the north-west to Al Haditha near the border with Jordan, is reported to be the world’s largest railway construction project under development today.

Another key project is the $7 billion Saudi Land Bridge, running from Dammam to Jeddah via Riyadh. This will be the first rail link between the Red Sea and the Gulf, and will cut the time taken to transfer containers between the two ports to 18 hours, compared with a sea voyage of between five to seven days. The project is reported to be going ahead despite a decade of delays and financial issues over privatization.

The Haramain high-speed rail link running for 450 km between Mecca and Medina is Saudi Arabia’s most important passenger transport project. When completed, it is expected to carry 10 million pilgrims and visitors between the holy sites each year. Projects are also under way to build light rail/metro systems to ease congestion in heavily populated cities including Riyadh, Mecca and Jeddah.

The UAE, the second-largest economy in the GCC after Saudi Arabia, triggered the regional rail revolution with its Dubai Metro project, whose first line opened in 2009. Dubai Metro, the Middle East's first driverless metro system, carried 367 million passengers in 2012. The UAE’s focus is now on Etihad Rail, a 1,200-km network which will be expanded in three phases across the seven emirates, with completion expected in 2018. Eventually the network will form part of a regional GCC railway grid, connecting the UAE to Saudi Arabia via Ghweifat in the west and Oman via Al Ain in the east, with freight trains running at up to 120 kph and passenger trains at speeds of up to 200 kph.

Dubai Metro (Photo: DubaiMetro.eu)

Qatar, meanwhile, as part of expanding its infrastructure to host the Football World Cup in 2022, has committed to building a $35 billion national network comprising a four-line metro system, a light rail system and heavy rail lines for freight and passengers. The first phase of the new Doha Metro system is set to be commissioned by 2019 and will comprise 60% of the total network – 151 km and 48 stations. Qatari railways chief Saad Al Muhannadi estimates rail-related project returns for investors in Qatar over the next 20 years at about $38 billion.

Oman’s planned national rail network is set to receive a major share of the sultanate’s 2013 funding boost for public transport. A $15 billion system comprising over 1,000 km of dual track is proposed to connect industrial production centres in Sohar, Duqm and Salalah and carry large volumes of bulky cargo, especially minerals. There are also plans to build a metro system in the capital, Muscat.

Iraq’s rail network, opened almost 100 years ago, is now widely run-down after decades of disrepair, war and invasion, although several lines are still in use from Baghdad to Mosul, Samarra and Fallujah, among others. Upgrading the network and restoring other lines are priorities in the government’s reconstruction efforts, although specific funding on a large scale has yet to be committed.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran says it is adding 11,000 km to its railway network and plans to launch express freight services on the Tehran-Mashhad route. Jordan, however, bucked the trend for expansion by deciding in November 2012 to halt any new land acquisition for the National Railway Project until the country’s financial situation became clearer.

There are several large rail projects under way in North Africa too, although the sums involved are more modest than in the GCC. Morocco’s Casablanca-Tangier high-speed rail link is going ahead at an estimated cost of around $3 billion. Algeria is planning to spend $600 million on fast rail services. And several metro and tram systems are planned in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Casablanca's new 31-km tram system launched in December 2012 and the Algiers metro, which finally opened in 2011 after over 20 years of construction delays, has three extensions in progress.

Morocco's Casablanca-Tangier TGV (Photo: Global Arab Network)

Egypt, beset by a spate of railway accidents that claimed dozens of lives, pledged at the start of 2013 to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrading the inadequate rail infrastructure to stop more disasters. Other plans include a new electric railway system from Alexandria to Cairo and a line from Beni Suef to Asyut, both funded by the World Bank, and a new metro extension in Cairo with a loan from the EU and France.

Advantages

High-speed rail services will reduce journey times substantially. The Jeddah-Riyadh link is expected to slash passengers’ journeys to six hours instead of the current 10 to 12 hours by bus. But freight markets are the key drivers for the development of Middle East rail networks, especially in the GCC countries. According to Bechtel’s Amjad Bangash, studies have shown that trains carry freight with nearly 10 times the energy efficiency of trucks.

“Rail freight is particularly attractive across long distances… Centuries ago, the Silk Route connected trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network. In the same spirit, the development of the GCC network could have a transformational effect on international trade and commerce in the region,” he believes.

Graeme Overall, business development director of Etihad Rail, maintains that in addition to economic growth and diversification, which are “the key drivers for building a national freight network in the UAE,” moving bulk freight by train will benefit the environment by reducing the energy-intensive high impact use of road transport, while alleviating congestion will improve road safety.

Challenges

Building MENA rail networks involves numerous challenges, many of them specific to the region’s climatic conditions and environment. Geoff Leffek, regional rail director at Hyder Consulting, in an interview with the Dubai-based Construction Week website, listed the biggest issues as “sand and dust, particularly build-up on rails; patronage forecasting, as ridership forecasting is challenging in places with little or no existing public transport; energy demand, because power requirements have not always been tied up with utility providers; and climatic conditions such as temperature extremes, humidity, harsh sunlight, etc…”

Building lines that would allow train speeds of over 300 kph, achieved by the French TGV or the Japanese “bullet train”, might not be technically feasible in the desert where the movement of sand dunes can disrupt track beds. Engineers from Etihad Rail have looked for solutions from China, which has used plants that can turn sand dunes to clay over 20 to 30 years, and Saudi Arabia, which has sand-sucking locomotives that push sand particles away from the engine.

Persuading people to travel by train in a region where rail transport has been seen as down-market and unappealing may also be an issue. Colin Best, editor of the MENA Rail News business website, told The Middle East that each country has different reasons for developing its rail infrastructure, whether to relieve major road congestion in capitals such as Riyadh and Doha, to cater for professionals in new residential areas such as Lusail in Qatar, or to transport pilgrims to and from Mecca, “where the influx of visitors is substantial and the number of buses required has started to become a logistical nightmare”.

And while public-private partnerships are increasingly helping to fund the huge costs of GCC rail projects, the credit crunch and its consequences have diminished the willingness of banks to finance long-term projects. Not all the rail projects proposed may be able to amass the expected level of private funding.

Other essentials to building a seamless GCC-wide regional rail network include developing individual country networks according to uniform standards and specifications, ensuring interoperability and streamlining and harmonizing customs procedures.

As David Lupton, transport economist and a former project manager of the GCC rail feasibility study, told Reuters news agency in October 2012, “a key challenge is ensuring that the railways being built do actually connect… I get the impression that national priorities may dominate.”