A railway project connecting the entire GCC is coming soon
Eurostar who?
Getting around the GCC is about to get so much easier. According to the Qatar News Agency, the Gulf Railway Authority announced that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are still on track to finish the GCC Railway.
According to the report, the GCC Railway is expected to be ready by December 2030.
Confirmed by the Director General of the Gulf Railway Authority, Eng. Mohammed bin Fahad Al Shabrami, on the sidelines of the second edition of the Global Rail 2025 Exhibition and Congress, said the new railway project is one of the main strategic projects that will connect the six GCC countries.
#GCC #Railway is set for completion by December 2030; the network will link all six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
The total planned length of the network is about 2,177km. https://t.co/XJ7xg2JrKk pic.twitter.com/pycUDjXXpf
— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) October 1, 2025
The network is set to take you from the buzzy streets of Riyadh and Jeddah to the warm, welcoming ones of Oman and Bahrain. The railway is set to connect nearly 2,117 kilometres (which is nearly half of Europe) across the GCC.
The passenger trains will operate at speeds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (nearly the top speed of a Corvette), while freight trains will range between 80 and 120 kilometres per hour (still as fast as a cheetah though).
The six GCC countries are currently working together to complete the linkage phases, as the Gulf project ties in with existing national projects within each country to form a major part of the regional transport system, making travel between the GCC countries and the wider region much easier than before.
Each of the countries is responsible for developing the portion of the project that lies within its territory and will construct its own railway lines and branches, stations, and freight terminals. The cost will then be shared by the six countries in proportion to the length of the rail network in each country
The history
The GCC Railway was first approved at the 30th GCC summit in Kuwait City in December 2009, and the original deadline was actually meant to be 2018. It was then postponed several times by Oman and Bahrain.
The planned railway would begin in Kuwait, pass through Dammam and Al-Batha Port (the only port to connect the Kingdom with the United Arab Emirates) n Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in the UAE, and then enter Oman through Sohar and finally end in Muscat.
The railway from Dammam will link to Bahrain through branches of the proposed King Hamad Causeway, and then it’s off to Qatar via the Salwa port. The proposed Qatar–Bahrain Causeway will provide additional connectivity
Visit: qna.org.qa
Images: What’s On archives
