Saudi Railways Organization

Saudi Railway Organization: routes and projects

Passenger train on the Dammam – Riyad 1 route

The Saudi Railways Organization (SRO; Saudi Railway Administration ; Arabic المؤسسة العامة للخطوط الحديدية, DMG al-muʾassasa al-ʿāmma li-l-ḫuṭūṭ al-ḥadīdiyya ) is the Saudi Arabian state railway administration and operates the railway there .

history

The first railway on the territory of what is now Saudi Arabia was the Hejaz Railway .

→ Main article : Hejaz Railway

It was built when the area was still part of the Ottoman Empire . It ran from Damascus from the north , ended in Medina and was in operation in this section from 1908 to around 1926 with a major interruption during the First World War . Until the mid-1930s, isolated trips are said to have been made on the route. After that, the facility fell into disrepair and is only partially preserved as a ruin in Saudi Arabia.

The current route network of the railroad in Saudi Arabia was created from 1948 as a railway infrastructure of the Saudi Aramco Petroleum Company to transport equipment for their oil production and oil products between the Persian Gulf and the interior. Today's Dammam – Riyadh 2 railway line was opened on October 20, 1951 by King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud and the then Crown Prince Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz . At that time there was also passenger traffic on the route . Initially, Aramco operated the route itself. In 1980, the Saudi state took over ARAMCO completely. The country's railways and the railway line were thus passed under state sponsorship. It was operated by the Saudi Government Railway Organization , later renamed the Saudi Railways Organization .

In 1978 an Italian company received the order to expand this first line. The contract was soon expanded to include a second, shorter route between Dammam and Riyadh. This second line to Riyadh (today: Dammam – Riyadh 1 railway ) was inaugurated in its entire length on May 12, 1985.

organization

The SRO is currently a state railway . The aim of the “Saudi Vision 2030” initiative is to privatize passenger and freight transport . The Haramain high-speed line is an exception .

Route network

This route network is only operated with diesel vehicles. Both lines are single-track main lines in standard gauge , which essentially serve the traffic between the capital Riyadh and the port city of Dammam on the Persian Gulf. The lines run parallel between Dammam and Hofuf for 139 km, but are operated as a separate line in regular operation. In addition, some short branch lines and the Dammam port railway (12.9 km) belong to the SRO network. The total length of the network is almost 1100 km if this parallel route is not taken into account. Line 2 is used exclusively for freight traffic , while line 1 is used for passenger traffic between Riyadh and Dammam.

technology

UIC 60 type rails are used . The point machines are protected from sand by housings. The technical equipment and the systems that ensured operational safety were quite simple until recently. There were neither up-to-date signals nor train protection. It has had a modern stand since June 2009. A consortium made up of Siemens Transportation Systems and the Saudi Arabian Nour Communications Company has been working on this modernization since 2005. This includes equipping the railway with modern signal systems with block points , equipping 15 level crossings with video surveillance and introducing ETCS Level 1 . Because of the extreme weather conditions, the ETCS balises have special sun protection. The system is controlled by ten Simis signal boxes from Siemens . The control center with four operator positions is located in Dammam. In addition, GSM-R was introduced for control and radio communication . The total costs were converted to 91 million euros.

When the system went into operation, the Saudi Arabian railroad also received operating regulations for the first time.

traffic

The passenger trains offer two car classes . There is no longer any gender segregation. In 2008, 1.1 million passengers and 3.5 million tons of goods (mainly in containers) were carried. In 2011, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles built new diesel multiple units for the Saudi Arabian railway.

On February 26, 2017, the public passenger was on the new line of the south line north- added between Riyadh and Al-Qassim.

Projects

The following projects exist for network expansion:

1. Haramain high-speed line, see:
   → Main article : Medina – Mecca railway line
2. from Riyadh towards the Red Sea and the port city of Jeddah, 945 km. The extensions 1 and 2 together form the Saudi Landbridge Project, which is to connect the Persian Gulf and Red Sea by rail .
3. Dammam - Al-Jubail , 115 km.
4. Doha ( Qatar ) - Connection to the Saudi rail network (approx. 100 km) is being built by the Qatar Railways Company . Given the political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, this project is likely to be suspended for the moment.

In addition, there are strategic considerations - but not feasible under the current political conditions - for a route via Israel to Egypt .

literature

• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary . Volume 8: The Middle East and Caucasus. 2006.

Web links

• Website of the Saudi Railway (English)
• Saudi Railways Expansion Program (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Noll (Ed.): The Hejaz Railway. A German railway in the desert . DGEG, Werl 1995, ISBN 3-921700-68-X ; Robinson, p. 42.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Robinson, p. 42.
3. ↑ Robinson, p. 43.
4. ^ NN: D Saudi Arabia , (i) Future Plans (reproduction of a report from the Railway Gazette International ). In: HaRakevet 118 (September 2017). ISSN  0964-8763 , p. 17.
5. ↑ Technical information on SRO ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} ETCS in Saudi Arabia . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 2009, p. 422.
8. ↑ Siemens AG: Dammam - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
9. ↑ ^{a b} Siem.
10. ↑ See Saudi Railways Organization, Statistics. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 1, 2014 ; accessed on June 29, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Eisenbahn-Revue 10/2011, p. 487.
12. ^ NN: First Passenger Services . In: Railway Gazette International of February 27, 2017. Reproduced in: HaRakevet 117 (June 2017), p. 27.
13. ↑ Website of the Saudi Railroad ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ^ Walter Rothschild: Other Middle East Railways - E. Qatar - ii. Construction boom . In: HaRakevet 95 = Vol. 25/4 (December 2011), p. 18.
15. ^ Website of the Saudi Railways ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.