Saudi Arabia has inaugurated the Middle East’s largest urban rail project in the form of Riyadh’s much-anticipated metro system, twelve years after the project was launched and six years after its original supposed completion date. It’s a move that is set to transform mobility in the busy national and regional capital.
Sunday, 1 December, saw operations commence on three branches of the underground system, the so-called “Blue”, “Purple” and “Yellow” lines – the latter of which takes passengers out to the city’s main airport. Astonishingly, after a wait of a little over a decade since contracts were first awarded, three more lines are slated for opening by early January 2025.
3.6 million passengers a day
Congestion and heavy road traffic are a major headache for Riyadh’s eight million residents, as well as for visitors to the Saudi capital. And with major tourism and development targets expected not only to grow the city’s population by another 2 million but also to more than double its current tourist numbers to 70 million, the issues of mobility and crowding are not likely to go away.
But the Royal Commission for Riyadh City says the new six-line metro, covering 176 km of track, will, when finished, boast a capacity of over 3.6 million passengers per day, providing a more sustainable way for people to get around. A further seventh line is already envisaged for a later date.
“Our target is to reduce traffic within the city by up to 30 percent. This goal is supported by the metro’s capacity to transport up to 3.6 million passengers daily, which is a challenging target, especially when compared to other cities that have struggled to transition car users to public transportation,” Maher Sheira, digital infrastructure supervisor for the King Abdulaziz Public Transport Project in Riyadh, told Arab News.
Energy-efficient trains and solar-powered stations
“We all know that shifting from daily car use to public transportation can have a significant environmental impact,” Sheira added. “In a small study we conducted, we found that if 100,000 passengers switch from cars to public transport, it could save over 3 million trees annually. This number has the potential to grow even further.”
As well as reducing road traffic congestion and pollution, the project features several of its own eco credentials, using energy-efficient trains and stations, and technologies such as regenerative braking to recover energy and reduce consumption. What’s more thousands of solar panels will be fitted in some stations, meaning that every station stop can run on renewables.
