An agreement was ratified last month between Saudi Arabia and the Al Shoula consortium responsible for equipping and operating the Haramain high-speed line for a phased opening. IRJ’s Spanish regional editor Ferran Torga explains why the opening is later than envisaged and the challenges the world’s first desert high-speed railway will face.

A new opening date for the Haramain high-speed project, announced last November, was ratified on January 16 during a visit to Saudi Arabia by a Spanish delegation led by Spain’s King Felipe VI when Saudi authorities agreed to extend the delivery deadline by 14 months until March 2018 and to acknowledge €150m in cost overruns.

SAUDI Arabia's minister of transport Mr Suleiman Al Hamdan has been appointed head of Saudi Railway Company (SAR), which the government has decreed will now become responsible for all new line construction projects.

ACCORDING to Spain's minister of public works, Mrs Ana Pastor, Saudi Arabia has granted the Spanish-Saudi Al-Shoula consortium an extra 14 months to complete the Haramain high-speed project.

IRJ at the UIC High-Speed Rail World Congress, Tokyo: CONSTRUCTION of Saudi Arabia's Haramain high-speed line is back on schedule and services will be running on the entire route within 18 months, according to Renfe, which will operate the 450km line from Mecca to Jeddah and Medina.

METRO Jeddah, which was set up in March 2013 to implement an entire public transport network in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, involving metro, light rail, rail, buses and water taxis, will hold a project briefing day for consultants, contractors and suppliers in Jeddah on March 30.

THE first 13-car Talgo 350 train for the 450km Mecca – Medina Haramain high-speed line was loaded onto cargo vessel the Jolly Quarzo at Barcelona docks on the morning of December 11 in readiness for its sea voyage to Saudi Arabia.

SAUDI transport minister Mr Jabara Al-Seraisry confirmed on November 24 that trial operation will begin "early next year" on the first completed section of the 450km Haramain high-speed line from Medina to Jeddah and Mecca.

Saudi Railways Organisation has a lot on its plate. It is upgrading its existing railway in the east of Saudi Arabia, overseeing the construction of the Haramain high-speed line in the west, and developing plans for a second high-speed line and the Saudi part of the Gulf Railway. David Briginshaw visited SRO's headquarters in Dammam to find out how the work is progressing.