Author(s)

Mohammad Emad Motieyan Najar & Alia Khalfan Al Rahbi

Abstract

Trans-border railroad in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to the early 20th century in Saudi Arabia. Over the recent decades due to increasing population and developing industrial zones, the demands are growing up over time. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is now embarking on one of the largest modern cross-border rail networks in the world. This is an ambitious step regarding the planning and establishment of the rail network connecting all the six GCC countries. This railway network will go through at least one city in each country to link the cities of Kuwait in Kuwait, Dammam in Saudi Arabia, Manama in Bahrain, Doha in Qatar, the cities of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates and Sohar and then Muscat in Oman in terms of cargo and passengers. The area of investigation covers different aspects of the shared Arabian countries rail routes called ‘GCC line’ and their national rail network. The aim of this article is to study the existing future plans and policies of the GCC countries shared line and domestic railway network. This article studies the national urban (light rail transportation (LRT), metro (subways) and intercity rail transportation to appraise the potential of passenger movement and commodity transportation at present and in the future. The tabular informative technical aspects of operation, such as traffic load yearly, speed, cost of the project, tracks length and track types, are supplied. Result of the analysis gives an overview of the Gulf Arabian countries railway plan and project properties to generate opportunities for international companies and researchers. It shows that there is a big boom and development for the upcoming railway transportation in the GCC countries.

Keywords

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Operation, planning and policy, Railway network, Railway track, urban and intercity transportation