IDS are due to be submitted by the end of next month (January) for the second phase of the estimated $7-billion 450-km-long Haramain High Speed Rail (HHR) project, which will link the cities of Makkah and Madinah, via Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.

This follows the award of key contracts earlier this year for Phase One, including those for the civil works and designs for the railway stations.

Phase Two of the project calls for the construction of the ballasted track, signalling, telecommunications, electrification and operational control centre. It also includes the procurement and maintenance of rolling stock; and upon completion of construction, maintenance of the infrastructure for 12 years.

Representatives from a number of organisations namely Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO), Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR), World Bank and SRO’s consultants Systra, Saud Consult and Linklaters have worked together to produce the tender documents which cover technical, operational, financial and legal aspects of the project, according to Abdulaziz Al Hokail, president of SRO.

Five consortia are in the fray for work on Phase Two of the project, estimated to be worth $1.4 billion, including one Chinese-led consortium headed by China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC), a leading Chinese rail builder. The other consortia are led by Middle Eastern firms – Saudi Binladin (German), Badr (Korean), Al Shoula (Spanish), and Al Rajhi (French).

This phase comprises public procurement of the remaining infrastructure not included in Phase One. The winning contractor for this phase is expected to provide trains fast enough to cope with the anticipated number of passengers, maintenance and operation of the project and provide additional energy to meet demand growth, says Al Hokail.
The HHR project was conceptualised as a high-speed electrified passenger line, primarily designed to provide a fast, comfortable, reliable and safe mode of transport to serve the Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah region, which receives up to three millions of pilgrims and other visitors every year, who struggle to make it to Madinah on overloaded buses and taxis.

The project is also expected to connect to King Abdullah Economic City, a business hub being built from scratch.
Al Hokail states that the project, upon completion, will provide an unprecedented means of transport in the Middle East as the safest and fastest service for the conveyance of pilgrims and other passengers.

The important features of the project include:
• A high-speed (360 kmph design speed) 450-km electrified passenger double line between Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah. This will result in a journey time of approximately half an hour from Makkah to Jeddah and about two hours between Jeddah and Madinah;

• Makkah Central Station near the Third Ring Road;

• Jeddah Central Station, to be located on the Haramain Road. The railway alignment will use the median of the Haramain Road while the station at King Abdullah International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah will be a terminus station;

• A passenger station in Madinah; and

• A station may also be built at the King Abdullah Economic City and another for the Hajj Terminal at Jeddah Airport.

The design, construction, operation and maintenance of the project is being executed in two phases.

Phase One itself will be carried out two stages. The first part includes civil works, which has been awarded to Al Rajhi Alliance under a contract worth SR6.785 billion ($1.808 billion). Package Two of Phase One calls for the design and construction of four stations. Detailed design work on these stations has been entrusted to the UK-based Fosters & Partners and Buro Happold. By February next year, SRO aims to release tender documents for the construction of the stations and expects to award the contracts by June.

In addition, a SR360 million ($95.96 million) contract has also been agreed with a joint venture of Dar Al Handasah (Shair and Partners) and Getinsa of Spain for the supervision of construction, design and project management of the project.
Al Rajhi Alliance – including Al Rajhi Investment Group, Mada Company for Industrial and Commercial Investment, and CRCC – has already started work on Phase One Package One of HHR, which includes public procurement of route civil works (design and build) in addition to maintenance for five years. Works include construction of bridges, viaducts, retaining walls, subways, shafts, tunnels, embankments, earth structures, covered ways, utility service structures and fencing.
Meanwhile, Foster and Partners is currently undertaking design work of four stations for the HHR project under its SR142-million ($37.85 million) contract.

The company will design stations for Makkah, Jeddah, King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh and Madinah. Each station will have separate arrival and departure areas with different modern building envelopes, taking into consideration the local architecture (particularly for Makkah and Madinah, which are expected to have iconic buildings) and climatic and local conditions and to meet the needs of the individual cities they will serve.

Construction of the stations, which includes maintenance for two years, entails electrical, mechanical, structures, communications, ticketing, fire protection, lifts and escalators and power supply.

It is expected that Phase One will be completed by April 2012, while the second phase will be finished in May 2012. Testing and commissioning will take approximately six months. The SRO anticipates that the HHR project will be fully operational by November 2012.

The Haramain link will eventually be linked to a planned Gulf Arab rail network. Saudi Arabia’s two other railway projects involve a 1,000-km-long Landbridge that links the kingdom’s eastern and western coasts and the North-South link, which will be used for both mining and passenger transportation.

By the year 2025 railways are projected to cater to 11 per cent of the kingdom’s passenger transportation requirements for distances of 380 to 500 km, 12.5 per cent for distances of 850 to 980 km, and nine per cent for distance of 1,250 to 1,400 km, according to Saudi Arabia’s plan for its transportation sector.

As for the transportation of goods, Saudi Arabia estimates that by 2025 the railway sector will cater to 24 per cent of the requirement for a distance of 300 km, 40 per cent for a distance of 900 km and 48 per cent for a distance of 1,400 km. The annual growth rate during the plan period is estimated to be at 4.8 per cent.

“It is based upon these studies that the Saudi government has adopted a strategic plan to develop railways services in the kingdom, which includes a number of major projects to expand the railways network and services and a privatising programme of the SRO. The Haramain High Speed Rail is just one part,” concludes Al Hokail.