Saudi minister says railway link study with Turkey via Jordan, Syria to be completed soon

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Transport and Logistic Services, Saleh al-Jasser, on Wednesday said the joint studies for the railway link project connecting Saudi Arabia and Turkey via Jordan and Syria is expected to be completed before the end of the year, noting that this project supports trade movement.

During an interview with Al Arabiya Business, al-Jasser said that the project would “enhance regional integration, support trade, and develop a sustainable land transport system between the countries of the region.”

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He noted that Saudi Arabia’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.

The project announced by al-Jasser was in fact a modern extension to years-old project. It revives a route linked to a historic railway connecting Turkey to Saudi Arabia via Jordan and Syria, with branch lines that also extended to Lebanon.

It was first operated in 1908, extending from Damascus southwards to Medina, with Damascus serving as a key hub. From there, lines branched north towards Aleppo and Turkey, and west towards Lebanon, particularly Beirut, making the network an interconnected regional system.

It played an important role during its early years, but it was severely damaged during World War I.

Projects aimed at creating alternative land routes have come back into focus to enhance the resilience of supply chains particularly after maritime shipping was disrupted with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The new railway project will gain another dimension once it is linked to the Gulf railway network.

In March, al-Jasser had announced the launch of the Logistics Routes Initiative at Jeddah Islamic Port, aiming to enhance the flexibility of supply chains and ensure the continued flow of trade in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf.

During the Al Arabiya Business interview, he 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.

Al-Jasser stressed his country’s flexibility and large capacity in the Red Sea, adding that it could receive over 17 million containers annually and stressed the importance of those ports in receiving containers transferred from Gulf states.

He added that the government has worked to connect the Red Sea ports with logistical routes to the Gulf states, boosting Saudi Arabia’s ability to be a regional center for redirecting shipments and launching new freight railway corridors connecting ports at the Arabian Gulf with the al-Haditha Crossing.

Al-Jasser further confirmed that work has been stepped up in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports to raise their readiness, adding that the country’s airports were “open to aircraft of brotherly countries.”

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