Studies for rail link to Türkiye to be completed soon: Saudi minister

ISTANBUL

A Saudi minister said on April 22 that studies for a railway link connecting the Kingdom to Türkiye via Jordan and Syria are set to be completed before the end of the year.

Speaking to Saudi television Al Arabiya, Transport and Logistics Services Minister Saleh al-Jasser said the project would “enhance regional integration, support trade, and develop a sustainable land transport system between countries of the region.”

The Kingdom’s national railway network “currently extends to the Jordanian border via the al-Haditha crossing, making it a strategic focal point for future expansion into regional and international connectivity,” he added.

The minister emphasized that Saudi Arabia’s ports and corridors “were working in an integrated manner to ensure the continuation of regional trade and facilitate the movement of goods between countries.”

Saudi Arabia “could receive over 17 million containers annually,” he said, stressing the importance of the Saudi ports in receiving containers transferred from Gulf states.

On April 3, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said Ankara plans to extend railway lines to the Syrian city of Aleppo as part of efforts to revive the historic Hejaz Railway.

The Hejaz Railway is one of the region’s most prominent historical infrastructure projects, built between 1900 and 1908, stretching about 1,322 kilometers between Damascus and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It was later expanded to nearly 1,900 kilometers with additional lines.