Aug. 5 – From Riyadh to Jeddah by train at 350 km / h will soon be a Saudi reality thanks to Italferr, the Italian State Railways Group’s engineering company, which has been awarded a contract worth €28 million by the Saudi Railway Company (SAR) for the development of the project and preliminary details of the new “Saudi Landbridge.” 950 km of rails won as a result of a competition between an international group of competitors at the highest level. The new line will be interconnected with the existing network Riyadh-Dammam. The project also includes the integration of the seaport of Jeddah in the new railway network. “This Saudi Landbridge – said in a note the Italian company – will transform the existing railway system in Saudi Arabia with a line connecting international passenger and cargo to the east and west coasts of the Kingdom. It will have the ability to move large quantities of goods over long distances at competitive prices and offer passengers safe and comfortable ground transportation.” The Preliminary and Detail Project assigned to Italferr includes a study on the tracks, location, bridges, tunnels, passenger stations, facilities for loading and unloading containers, signaling systems (the new European system ERTMS Level 2) and telecommunications, environmental impact assessment and resulting landscape study, mitigation of noise and effects due to sand… The contract for this study has been signed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the Ministry of Finance, and it will be managed by the Saudi Railway Company (SAR) for a running time of 14 months. Italferr will be assisted by Arabian Consulting Engineering Centre (Acec), an engineering company operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1979. After the recent assignment related to design activities for the metro in Doha, Qatar, Italferr is consolidating its presence in the Gulf and aims to become a leading company in the Gulf railway sector, also thanks to the design of 2244 km of railway line in Oman. In Brazil, in addition, the company was awarded a provisional basis for the Technical Assistance to the Client in the Rio de Janeiro – Sao Paulo – Campinas high-speed project.
