The North–South Railway line is a 2,750 kilometres (1,709 mi) railway line built by Saudi Railway Company (SAR) in Saudi Arabia. Operation on 1,392 kilometres (865 mi) long freight part of the project connecting Al-Haditha and Jalamid with new port city Ras Al-Khair was started in Jan 2015.[2]
An 85 km link is planned which would connect the North–South railway with the port at Jubail.[3]
The line starts from Al-Jalamid mine which is located in the northeast in the Northern Territory, through Al-Jawf and Hail until arriving at the "AlBaithah railway junction" in the Qassim region. It then headed toward the southeast for processing and export facilities at Ras Al-Khair in the Eastern Province near Jubail. The line shares infrastructure with the SAR Riyadh-Qurayyat Line between Buraidah and Al Nafud. The line is a dedicated freight corridor, however, the SAR Riyadh-Qurayyat Line operates only passenger services.[4]
The first six of 25 EMD SD70ACS freight locomotives ordered in April 2009 were handed over to SAR at Port Dammam on 22 August 2010.[5]
Passenger diesel push–pull trains made by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles arrived in April 2015, and are designed to run at 200 km/h up to 55 degrees C.[6] Each of the SAR trains includes a restaurant car, family zone and a prayer compartment, as well as both seating and sleeping cars. They are expected to run in formations of nine and 13 cars.[6]
