Saudi Arabia awards $22.5 bln contracts to build Riyadh metro

[Saif al-Arab]

 

[Malik Alpha]

@Sharif al-Hijaz Alhamdulilah I have the honor of working in this project as a Quality control engineer in EWG(Electrical Work Group). Project is enormous and hundreds of thousands of people will get benefit from this. But I wish they build it 10 years ago. Getting to the site and back takes more thn 2 hours.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

@Sharif al-Hijaz Alhamdulilah I have the honor of working in this project as a Quality control engineer in EWG(Electrical Work Group). Project is enormous and hundreds of thousands of people will get benefit from this. But I wish they build it 10 years ago. Getting to the site and back takes more thn 2 hours.

I wish you all the best brother. It must be an exiting project to work on for sure. It will hopefully change the transportation in Riyadh forever and hopefully reduce the car traffic a bit at least.

I am not from Riyadh so I am yet to see this project in person but I will definitely visit once it is finished. I hear rumors of it being finished next year but I believe that it is more realistic to finish sometime in 2019? Do you have any inside knowledge that you want to share here?

Yes, you are right. A metro in Riyadh (not only) should have been built a long time ago. We need a metro in Jeddah and many other cities in KSA as well. At least something is happening in this regard and don't forget the planned railways that will hopefully connect the entire country. The size of KSA, geography and other factors don't help but this should not be an excuse.

 

[Malik Alpha]

I wish you all the best brother. It must be an exiting project to work on for sure. It will hopefully change the transportation in Riyadh forever and hopefully reduce the car traffic a bit at least.

I am not from Riyadh so I am yet to see this project in person but I will definitely visit once it is finished. I hear rumors of it being finished next year but I believe that it is more realistic to finish sometime in 2019? Do you have any inside knowledge that you want to share here?

Yes, you are right. A metro in Riyadh (not only) should have been built a long time ago. We need a metro in Jeddah and many other cities in KSA as well. At least something is happening in this regard and don't forget the planned railways that will hopefully connect the entire country. The size of KSA, geography and other factors don't help but this should not be an excuse.

Thank you brother and I also wish you the same My cousin works in Ansaldo STS(Main contractor for EW in Riyadh Metro) as a commissioning manager, According to him the project will complete in 2021-2022 but they might complete some routes for show in 2019. I work in Abdul Karim Holding group(Riyadh Metro Line 3) which itself is working as a subcontractor under Ansaldo and when I joined the company work progress was pathetic to be honest and still is

Since you dont live in Riyadh you have no idea about the sufferings of Riyadhians

P.S I have also worked in Saudi Railways project(SAR)North-South Railway line which is currently used for Phosphate transportation and is also the largest railway project in the world. My field of work there was Electro Mechanical and was working under Thales. ( the same company which builds AESA radars and all the avionics for Rafale). If you give me your email ID I can send you some confidential stuff

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Thank you brother and I also wish you the same My cousin works in Ansaldo STS(Main contractor for EW in Riyadh Metro) as a commissioning manager, According to him the project will complete in 2021-2022 but they might complete some routes for show in 2019. I work in Abdul Karim Holding group(Riyadh Metro Line 3) which itself is working as a subcontractor under Ansaldo and when I joined the company work progress was pathetic to be honest and still is

Since you dont live in Riyadh you have no idea about the sufferings of Riyadhians

P.S I have also worked in Saudi Railways project(SAR)North-South Railway line which is currently used for Phosphate transportation and is also the largest railway project in the world. My field of work there was Electro Mechanical and was working under Thales. ( the same company which builds AESA radars and all the avionics for Rafale). If you give me your email ID I can send you some confidential stuff

First in 2021-2022? Damn. Let us hope that he is wrong on this one.

The project from what I understand was slowed down last year due to the government cuts. It seems that the project is back on track and I think that they will speed up soon in order to finish within 2-3 years at the most.

Also hopefully this project will revamp the sidewalks in the city.

The traffic was already a headache before this project so I can only imagine how it is today!

Man, you have worked at some very interesting projects bro.

Anyway speaking about railways the Haramain High-Speed Rail will finish soon (very good news) and there is also the planned GCC railway which I hope will finalize in the not too distant future. I will do so if necessary but I believe you as you know what you are talking about.

 

[Malik Alpha]

First in 2021-2022? Damn. Let us hope that he is wrong on this one.

The project from what I understand was slowed down last year due to the government cuts. It seems that the project is back on track and I think that they will speed up soon in order to finish within 2-3 years at the most.

Also hopefully this project will revamp the sidewalks in the city.

The traffic was already a headache before this project so I can only imagine how it is today!

Man, you have worked at some very interesting projects bro.

Anyway speaking about railways the Haramain High-Speed Rail will finish soon (very good news) and there is also the planned GCC railway which I hope will finalize in the not too distant future.

No brother He is not the only one saying about the project delay. I have heard from many people who are working in this project since the beginning. I also get very excited working with such companies as a matter of fact when I first heard about Thales I didnt believe it so I asked the manager is this the same company which builds radar for French combat aircraft? He looked at me suspiciously and said yes But I was surprised that such advanced and sophisticated equipments are installed in a 2750 km railway line that even if you step on a railway line the guys sitting in Operation Control Center(OCC) will know about it. I got to know about the hard way though, I was walking on the track when the train actually stopped and my team on the site received a call from the OCC that please get off the track

 

[Saif al-Arab]

No brother He is not the only one saying about the project delay. I have heard from many people who are working in this project since the beginning. I also get very excited working with such companies as a matter of fact when I first heard about Thales I didnt believe it so I asked the manager is this the same company which builds radar for French combat aircraft? He looked at me suspiciously and said yes But I was surprised that such advanced and sophisticated equipments are installed in a 2750 km railway line that even if you step on a railway line the guys sitting in Operation Control Center(OCC) will know about it. I got to know about the hard way though, I was walking on the track when the train actually stopped and my team on the site received a call from the OCC that please get off the track

That is disappointing but to be honest with you, it was expected. Even without the government cuts due to lower oil prices. The most important thing now is that everything is done as it should be. If it takes a few years longer, then so be it.



We are talking about the longest ETCS system in the world after all.

Thales is a great company indeed. They are also a key partner in the Saudi Arabian Vision 2030.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

There seems to be some sort of delay or is it just me? Can somebody based in Riyadh confirm this suspicion?

@Malik Abdullah bro?

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

A tad bit on expensive side

 

[Saif al-Arab]

The first segments of the Riyadh Metro are all but complete.



Nice.

Another photo;

Test 1 by Bader Alotaby, on Flickr

A tad bit on expensive side

Actually that number is old data. Check out the date of the thread creation (July 2013). The final cost will less than the mentioned amount.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyadh_Metro

BTW there will be metros in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah soon as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah_Metro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madinah_Metro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecca_Metro

The Haramain High-Speed Railway will officially open in around 100 days from now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haramain_high-speed_rail_project

Just saying.