Passenger trains on the proposed GCC rail network will travel at a speed of 220km per hour, while the average hourly speed of freight trains will be from 80km to 120km.
The GCC rail project linking the six member-states, from Kuwait to Oman via Saudi Arabia and the UAE with branches linking Qatar and Bahrain, is expected to be ready by 2018.
According to a release, the total length of the GCC rail network will be 2,117km and it will link Kuwait to Muscat via Sohar in Oman and several other GCC cities.
A rail bridge is to be made to link Saudi Arabia to Bahrain and feasibility studies on this project are still being conducted, the release added.
Issued by the GCC Secretariat-General, the release put the estimated cost of the GCC railway link project at $15.4 billion.
Railway lines will run like this: Kuwait to Dammam to Bahrain; Dammam to Qatar to Salwa town in Saudi Arabia; Qatar to Bahrain; and Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi, Al Ain to Muscat via Sohar.
The engineering and design work of the project is expected to be completed this year, while the entire project is slated for completion and commissioning by 2018.
The UAE has completed its national railway project and is to begin work on the GCC linkage project soon.
Saudi Arabia, which is also building national railways, has already begun work on the regional link, said the release.
Qatar and Oman have, on the other hand, contacted consultancy firms for designing the regional railway link projects.
Kuwait is building two main rail lines whose length will be 574km and they will link the country to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, for its part, has to build the rail bridge for the railway link to Saudi Arabia.
The Peninsula
12 November
