Travelling by train is one of the most relaxing ways to view a country – now, an ambitious mega-engineering project costing £191 billion will see tracks crisscrossing six desert countries.
The Gulf Railway, also known as the GCC Railway, is an ambitious regional infrastructure project aimed at connecting the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman – through a 2,177-km (1,352 mile) railway network.
The project is designed to facilitate the movement of goods and passengers, promote regional economic integration, and reduce reliance on road transportation.
“The GCC rail project will represent a significant leap in connectivity and integration in the Gulf region,” according to the Council’s website, “yielding direct positive impacts on intra-trade and the freedom of movement for citizens and residents among the Council states.”
The railway will stretch from Kuwait in the north, passing through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar, then continuing to the UAE, and ending in Oman.
This will create a continuous rail link across the Arabian Peninsula.
With cost estimates ranging between £128bn ($167 billion) and £191bn ($250 billion), the GCC Railway ranks as the third-largest “megaproject” currently under construction globally, according to Statista.
It is surpassed only by Neom, the £385bn ($500 billion) futuristic city being built in the Saudi Arabian desert, and the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) rail, a European Union initiative aimed at improving rail connectivity across Europe, with an estimated cost of around £460 bn ($600 billion).
Initially launched in 2009, the Gulf Railway project was expected to be finished by 2018.
However, falling oil prices in the mid-2010s worsened the Gulf states’ fiscal challenges and delayed the GCC Railway project, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The timeline has been pushed back multiple times, with the latest projected completion date set for 2030.
As of September, the project was still in the design phase, focusing on feasibility studies, hiring consultants, and conducting tender processes for different railway segments.
Each of the six GCC member states is responsible for executing the section of the railway within their borders. However, political and economic challenges, both domestically and among the member countries, have hindered significant progress.
In 2016, Mohammed Al Shuaili of Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communications told the Times of Oman that the country would pause work on the GCC Railway as other Gulf states seemed to have “decided to stop work on the project.”
The project saw a major boost in 2021 when the leaders of the six states agreed to create a centralised authority to coordinate construction efforts among the Council members.
However, internal political challenges have continued to slow progress. In December, the EIU reported that Kuwait’s “chronic political gridlock” had stalled its railway projects, including its section of the GCC Railway.
Despite the obstacles, during an October 8 meeting in Abu Dhabi, GCC Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi announced that several early stages of the project had been completed.
Mr Albudaiwi said: “Efforts continue in collaboration with the General Secretariat and the GCC Railways Authority to advance the phases of the railway connection project among the Council member states, which promises to significantly enhance Gulf connectivity and integration, resulting in direct positive impacts on trade movement and on the freedom of movement for citizens and residents throughout the GCC.”
He explained that Qatar had already completed the design and implementation documents for its section of the project, while Kuwait was finalising consultancy agreements for its design, which were expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Mr Albudaiwi added that six million passengers will be able to use the railway by the end of the decade, which is expected to rise to eight million by 2045.
