Rail Plans Are Being Revitalized By Gulf Countries

According to the Oxford Business Group website, the Gulf countries will revitalize their railway plan after many delays in the previous period, as this network represents a transformation of trade and linkage between the countries of the region. The project received a big boost in December when the GCC leaders agreed on the establishment of the Railways Authority, and this decision represents a potentially significant development for the railway.

According to a local Arabic daily, the region's governments agreed to a railway project in 2009, but due to financial challenges, the project was delayed. According to the website, the project's delay was also connected to the collapse in oil prices in 2014, and ultimately to the Corona epidemic.

The decision is a potentially major milestone for Gulf rail infrastructure. The GCC Railway project was first accepted by all six member nations in 2009, after decades of deliberation. However, budget constraints pushed back plans. These were linked to the 2014 oil price decline and, more recently, the Covid-19 epidemic and political difficulties, which culminated in some countries imposing an economic boycott on Qatar.

A 2177-kilometre railway is designed to connect all six GCC nations. Starting in Kuwait City, the train route will travel via Saudi Arabia's coastal cities of Jubail and Dammam before passing through Bahrain's capital Manama and Qatar's capital Doha. The route would then return to Saudi Arabia before heading to the United Arab Emirates, where it would travel via key towns such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Fujairah before arriving in Muscat, Oman's capital.

In February, Qatari media stated that construction of the segment between Qatar and Saudi Arabia will begin shortly, including essential groundwork like engineering plans and permits.

For example, Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 seeks to boost tourism's contribution to GDP to more than 10% and attract 100 million tourists by the end of the decade, up from roughly 20.3 million in 2019. Furthermore, the development of a GCC-wide railway would promote regional cooperation and assist aspirations for greater economic alignment within the bloc.

Indeed, the GCC has worked to hasten the formation of a single Customs union and common market, with the ultimate objective of achieving regional economic unity.

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