Transportation
Saudi Arabia Moves Forward on $7B Rail Landbridge Project
1,500-km freight and passenger rail link will tie Persian Gulf cities to the Red Sea
Saudi Arabian Railways is moving forward with its long-awaited Landbridge project, which will cross the Arabian Peninsula, joining the industrial cities of Jubail and Dammam on the Persian Gulf to the capital city Riyadh and the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
The $7-billion, 1,500 km project is part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program that incorporates numerous billion-dollar projects intended to modernize the country.
Construction on the passenger and cargo railway began in December last year, and in April, Spain-based Sener/Typsa was awarded the lead design contract.
Work on the project has not been interrupted by the US-Israel war with Iran and has instead accelerated it, according to some media reports. The railway has been under consideration for a number of years, and closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war has encouraged building the project. It is now expected to be completed in 2034 at a total cost of $7 billion, although the entire project is seen as requiring an investment of $26.6 billion.
The Landbridge is intended to reduce the need to transport products and materials from Saudi Arabia’s two main industrial regions, Jubail and Yanbu, through the Strait of Hormuz to global markets.
It will also offer passenger rail service, with trains operating at up to 250 km/hour. Freight will travel at up to 160 km/hour. The new rail line will not offer high-speed service due to the dual nature of its usage.
Initially, the Landbridge was set up as a public-private partnership, but it has evolved into a phased implementation strategy to increase construction flexibility and speed up work. SAR has divided the project into modular segments, allowing sections of the railway to proceed on rolling timelines. The project is in the advanced planning stage under Sener/Typsa, which is drawing up construction packages to be tendered at various times as work progresses.
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The Jubail-Dammam section of the railway was completed and inaugurated in April 2024.
The scope of work includes a new 950 km double-track/mixed-traffic rail line between Jeddah and Riyadh. The existing 450 km network between Riyadh and Dammam will be upgraded, and the rail lines between Dammam and Jubail will be upgraded or extended. A bypass will also be built around Riyadh, connecting to port cities. There will also be rail extensions to the industrial city of Yanbu and to King Abdullah Port.
Working with Sener/Typsa is Hill International as a member of the project management consortium, along with Italy’s Italferr, which contributed detail design when the project was under consideration in 2013-17.
The Saudi China Landbridge Consortium tasked to deliver the project comprises the railway, China Civil Engineering Construction Co. and Saudi-based Al-Ayuni Contracting.
The recent contractual development has reactivated engineering and localized structural contracts under the consortium's supervision. Some key early construction packages to be offered include viaducts, signaling, utilities and civil works along the 35 km Riyadh rail link.
Work in the vicinity of the capital includes a 22.7 km single-track rail, a 265-m bridge over Highway HW615, and a 118-m bridge over the Saudi Aramco pipelines.
The Landbridge is owned by the government of Saudi Arabia through Saudi Arabian Railway, the primary owner and operator, which is state-owned and fully controlled by the Public Investment Fund, the ultimate owner. The fund's role in the project is investment, strategic oversight and integration into other Vision 2030 initiatives.
None of the contracted partners has an ownership stake in the project.
