#engineering #rail #mfg The Haramain high-speed rail link connecting the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia is on track to open by the end of December 2015, according to Wasmi Al-Ferraj, Director General of Expansion Projects at Saudi Railways Organisation. Addressing a press conference in Riyadh, he said that the station in Madinah is now 52% complete, the Makkah station and a stop in Jeddah are about a third built, and the one serving King Abdullah Economic City is almost 38% done. A fifth station will serve Jeddah International Airport.
The Haramain link, which is being constructed specifically for high-speed electric trains, will be 450km long — linking Islam’s two most popular pilgrimage destinations — and will allow trains to reach at least 300kph. It will cost almost $12 billion, with the construction split into two parts. The first phase has a total budget of $4.1 billion, while the second phase, which includes the tracks and signalling, will cost some $7.9 billion.
The Kingdom’s first high-speed passenger rail line was originally due to be completed by January 2014, but construction delays have pushed it back to the end of 2015. Initially, the Haramain railway is expected to carry more than 3 million passengers annually between the two cities.