Transport ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have approved a feasibility study for the establishment of a multi-billion-dollar railway network, the project coordinator said yesterday.
They “approved a preliminary study to build a railway network. The study shows the project is highly feasible and … will have tremendous returns,â€? said Hamed Khajah, who is also Kuwait’s communications ministry undersecretary.
“The findings will now be sent to the GCC summit meeting in Manama next December for approval. There has been a consensus from member states on the importance of the project,� Khajah told AFP.
The ministerial approval came at a meeting in Kuwait City late Tuesday of the GCC.
The study, prepared by Kuwait’s Global Investment House, provides two options for the construction of a 2,000km long railway between the Gulf emirate and the Sultanate of Oman.
In one option, costing an estimated $4.5 billion, the link will exclude Bahrain, where residents can use the King Fahd Causeway link to eastern Saudi Arabia to join up with the Gulf railway.
The other option, estimated to cost $5.7 billion, starts from the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border and runs through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and ends in Oman, said Khajah.
That should be interesting, should also make the movement of goods easier and cheaper which is very much needed, the postal services generally are a complete joke in these countries that if we want to send anything and ensure that it is received we use one of the courier companies at great expense of course. But this rail network should help this situation.
NOT sure about the movement of people between our countries though, I don’t think I’ll live to the day where a GCC citizen would just get into his car and drive without going through tens of road checkpoints, or more importantly through passport control between member countries. Especially Saudi.
So imagine a trip from Kuwait to the Emirates and how long it would take (if not direct):
Kuwait City – Depart, 1 hour later
Kuwaiti/Saudi Border – passport control, 3 hours if you’re lucky
Saudi/Qatar Border – passport control 2 hours
Arrive at Doha – 1 hour
Qatar/Saudi Border – passport control 6 hours (they’re looking for booze now)
You get the picture, I’m not going to continue the scenario, but just imagine a trip from Muscat to Kuwait City. With the current retarded passport controls we have, especially and specifically in Saudi which should be the “mother” country to the whole Arab world, the rail network will probably be more effective as freight trains rather than people carriers.
And that’s NOT considering if (God forbid) Gulf migrant workers (from everywhere in the world) would want to travel on this train!
Having said all that, I do have a friend – a westerner – who habitually uses the train in Saudi from Dammam to Riyadh and he only has good things to say about it. So trains within sovereign borders works great, the problem comes out if the train crosses these borders.
Ah well, we’ll see…
