HIGHLIGHTS
“Haramain Train of the desert”
Commencement of Phase 2 of the high-speed railway between Mecca and Medina
On 26 October 2011, phase 2 of the tender was awarded to the Al Shoula consortium, made up of 12 Spanish companies (Renfe, Adif, Talgo, Copasa, OHLA, Cobra, Siemens Rail Automation, Indra, Imathia, Ineco, Abengoa Inabensa and Consultrans), with two Saudi companies (Al...
Engineering challenge
Throughout the entire course of phase 2, solutions will have to be developed to deal with the high temperatures on the one hand and the sand, dust and dune movement on the other. Temperature gradient The temperature gradient is not much higher in Saudi Arabia than in...
The Construction of the Superstructure
The contract to execute phase 2 of the Haramain High Speed Railway went into effect on 15 September 2012. The division of the platform: Six areas and eight stretches The route of the railway line, 450 kilometres long, was divided into six areas for phase 1. For phase...
Construction of the Infrastructure and Associated Systems
Immediately after the contract for phase 2 entered into force on 15 September 2012, the different work stages in building the superstructure and systems got underway. In Spain and on the ground in Saudi Arabia, the Spanish companies in the consortium deployed a...
Stationary and mobile communications
The communication systems are the artery through which information on the railway operation flows in real time. The stationary communication system is carried in a fibre optic wire which runs along two conduits, one on each side of the track, parallel to the railway...
Design, Acquisition and Maintenance of the Rolling Stock
One factor that weighed heavily in the choice of the Al Shoula proposal is the international fame of the Spanish train fleet, its low carbon dioxide emissions and the Spanish manufacturers’ experience with high speed trains, among many other important reasons. The...
The Spanish companies in the operation and maintenance phase
The central core of operation and maintenance comprises the management of the operation of Haramain High Speed Railway and has been assumed in general by Renfe through the local company SSTPC, as leader in the operation of integrated railway systems, and in particular...