SAUDI ARABIA: National rail operator Saudi Arabia Railways has launched a service designed to enable freight stranded in the country’s Gulf ports to be moved to the border with Jordan for onward transport by road.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the war with the USA and Israel has halted marine traffic to and from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Port, King Fahd Industrial Port and Jubail Commercial Port.
Faced with a potential surge in road container traffic, SAR has launched the rail service to carry freight that would have been handled by the three eastern ports to and from Al-Haditha on the border with Jordan.
The 1 700 km route uses SAR’s tracks from Abdulaziz Port in Dammam, the eastern most point on its network, via its freight line to the capital Riyadh and then via the North-South Railway via Al Zabirah junction to Al-Haditha.
Services carrying 400 TEUs will operate in both directions. The transit time across Saudi Arabia is expected to be around half that of containers sent by road.
Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser said the service is ‘a practical model for the integration of transport modes’, which supports local exports, strengthens ties between Saudi Arabia and its northern neighbours and reinforces the integration between Saudi Arabia’s seaports, its rail network and its land border crossings.
Through Jordan
Jordan’s only operational rail lines are narrow gauge and cannot carry containersed freight traffic. The new SAR service could renew interest in Jordan developing its long-planned standard gauge passenger and freight line between the capital Amman, its Red Sea port of Aqaba and Al-Haditha on the SAR network.
Initially proposed in 2010, the project was later expanded to include standard gauge rail links from Amman north to the border with Syria and east to the Iraq border.
The expanded 897 km project has been priced at around US$3·4bn but has not so far attracted the funding to needed to begin formal feasibility and engineering studies.
