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MAKKAH
 Saudi Arabia

 METRO

Mecca or Makkah (1.7 million inh.), holy Islam site in Saudi Arabia.

Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro, also known as the Mecca Metro, is an elevated 18.1 km rapid transit line which primarily serves to carry pilgrims between the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah.

Trains: CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles - 17 trainsets of type A made of 12 cars (276.8 m long and 3.1 m wide), with overhead power supply (1.5 kV DC); 1435 mm gauge; platforms equipped with platform screen doors

The line may later be extended to Al Haram and become the first part of a proposed 5-line network, which would also serve the Jeddah Airport and the future railway station.

 

 History

15 Nov 2010: Jamarat - Arafat 1

 Projects

Railway Gazette reports on 28 Nov 2013:

An 11 km line with seven stations would run mostly underground west from Jamrat along the north side of the Grand Mosque, King Abdul Aziz Road and the future Haramain railway station, terminating at the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway. The other line would be 33 km long with 15 stations, running south from Madinah Road to reach the west side of the Grand Mosque and Umm Al-Qura University. The first phase is to cost 25·5bn riyals. Contracts covering civil works, E&M and rolling stock are to awarded early in 2014, with work due to begin in mid-2014 and take three years. A total of four metro lines are planned, making a 114 km network with 88 stations. These are to be completed within 10 years in three phases:

Mecca Makkah metro project map

 Links

Mecca Metro at Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

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2010 © Robert Schwandl (UrbanRail.Net)