Keywords: railway, infrastructure, development, challenges, terrain, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is blessed with diverse topography, pattern of climate changes, characterized by high temperatures coupled with low rainfall and a historic profile of multifaceted disasters. It enjoys vital geo-strategic significance: historically a trade corridor integrating ancient civilizations, custodian of the Muslim holy lands hosting around 25 million visitors annually and the world's largest oil exporting country. Currently, the Kingdom is embarked on multibillion dollar program of developing around 10,000 km of urban, intercity and regional railways to improve the quality of life, facilitate visitors, improve GCC linkages and diversify economy. The experience of 1,300 km legendary Hejaz railways constructed in early 20th Century linking Syria suggests that developing and maintaining enormous rail network across formidable terrain of Arabian Peninsula will pose multifarious engineering, logistics and environmental challenges.

This paper analyses the projects of the Saudi Railway Master Plan 2010-40, which includes a portfolio of 97 billion US dollars for 19 individual lines of 9,900 Km passenger and freight network, in the backdrop of regional experiences, with a view to identifying challenges and suggesting measures for developing safe, reliable, speedy, efficient and sustainable railways. The paper also includes an assessment of the capacity building needs of the Kingdom to provide integrated, sustainable and innovative solutions to address complex local dynamics on conceptual, scientific and technological basis.

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