The rail link between Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia has been equipped with the most up to date signaling and telecommunications systems from Siemens Mobility. Rail operations started on the more than 1,000 kilometers long new line with this new technology in June 2009. The 449 kilometers long section of the line reserved for passenger service has been equipped with the European Train Control System and marks the first ever use of this technology in the Arabic world.
The Saudi Arabian railway network consists of 2 lines that connect the port city of Dammam and the capital, Riyadh, further inland. A 556 kilometers line for freight traffic was built back in the 1950s, whereas the 449 kilometers line for passenger service was not constructed until the 1980s. The Saudi Railways Organization transports around 850,000 passengers and 850 million tonne kilometers of freight per year. In December 2005, a consortium consisting of Siemens and the Saudi Arabian Nour Communications Company received an order from SRO to equip the rail link between the 2 cities with an automatic train protection system, a GSM Railway network and a video surveillance system for grade crossings. The order was worth around EUR 91 million.
As this order marked the first-ever use of modern automatic train protection systems for signaling based railway operations in Saudi Arabia, the operating instructions and regulations were drawn up jointly with SRO. Not only that, this approach enabled standards for the application guidelines and codes for operation of the new railway to be drafted and implemented together with SRO.
