Riyadh Metro is the Middle East’s Longest Metro System

In press statements made on the fringes of the Global Logistics Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Minister of Transport Saleh Al-Jasser stated that the metro project is remarkable and historic and that work is currently underway on the trial operation.

He added that the opening of the Riyadh Metro will hopefully operate in a few weeks. 

The National Strategy for Transport and Logistics Services, which aspires to turn the Kingdom into a worldwide hub for logistics, is one of the many areas in which Al-Jasser stressed the Kingdom’s noteworthy developmental renewal.

Additionally, the construction of the world’s largest metro project at one time, the metro project will likely bring about a significant improvement in Riyadh’s quality of life by giving the city’s citizens access to a modern, dependable, and swift mode of transportation.

Riyadh Metro’s Most Notable Outcomes

Few public transit choices exist in Saudi Arabia, the greatest oil exporter in the world; most options involve driving a car. The Riyadh Metro will likely reduce traffic by up to 30%, but this depends on how well it operates and how simple it is for passengers to access from residential neighbourhoods, according to professors, experts, and researchers in transportation engineering worldwide.

The metro system will employ energy-efficient trains and stations, in addition to technologies like regenerative braking to reduce energy consumption and outfit some stations with thousands of solar panels. These sustainable features of the project will improve environmentally friendly transportation options. All six metro stations will be supplied with electricity derived from renewable energy sources.

Dr Hamad bin Raja Al-Yami, a professor of transportation engineering and a former supervisor of Riyadh Metro Lines 4, 5, and 6, also anticipated that the city’s bus and metro systems would help cut down on traffic jams and the daily number of car trips by 250.000.

According to sources cited by Bloomberg on April 24, 2024, Riyadh has lowered its population target from 15 million to 10 million by 2030. This is still a sizable population that necessitates additional transportation options, the most significant of which is the metro project. Al-Yami mentioned that improving capacity and efficiency are only two of the ways metro trains may lessen traffic.

Riyadh Metro Network

Al-Yami discussed the capacity increase by pointing out that more people may ride metro trains at once, which lowers the overall number of automobiles on the road. As proof, he mentioned that 66 little automobiles, each with two occupants, could go a km on the road, transporting 132 passengers in total.

In contrast, there are, for example, 27 regular buses for every kilometre of road, all of which are 50% full. Since each bus can hold 25 passengers, a total of 675 people are accommodated; this means that fewer than 6 buses are needed to transport up to 66 cars, and it may even be less than that. As a result, buses help to relieve traffic in cities.

Al-Yami pointed out that, with 176 km in total length and 84 stations, the Riyadh Metro is the longest metro network in the Middle East and North Africa.

He clarified that the Riyadh Metro would eventually have track expansions to handle the numerous upcoming projects and the city’s anticipated rapid growth. This will draw in several significant national and international businesses, strengthening Riyadh’s standing as the region’s primary economic hub.

In addition to encouraging high-density housing and business districts close to stations, he explained that metro systems may affect patterns of urban development and lessen dependency on automobiles.

Some studies’ findings indicated that 34% and 74% of Riyadh residents could drive to the metro station in 5 and 10 minutes, respectively, while 5% and 14% of the city’s population could walk there in the same amount of time. Similarly, 53% and 76% of the population could walk there in the same amount of time for the bus station. These findings suggest that having bus stations within neighbourhoods makes walking more common.

Streamlining Daily Commutes

According to Abdul Aziz Al-Otaibi, the official spokesman for the General Authority of Roads in Saudi Arabia, the metro project will have many significant benefits, including lowering traffic density on the roads, which will improve residents’ quality of life, preserving the standard of road service, lessening wear and tear on the roads, and lowering pollution.

He underscored that the metro will help people save time on their travels, which will raise safety and help the road sector strategy achieve its goals of reaching the sixth global indicator for road quality and lowering the number of fatalities to fewer than five cases per 100,000 people by 2030.

Al-Yami further emphasised that scheduling metro journeys according to a certain schedule will cut down on time lost in traffic jams, boost worker productivity who were worn out from the commute, and accelerate daily operations.

In terms of the advantages for the environment, Al-Yami noted that the Riyadh Metro will be able to reduce pollution by 20% at the start of its operation compared to the Seoul Metro, which plans to reduce pollution by 36% by 2026. This is because fewer cars on the road and metro trains can eliminate pollution.

Al-Yami also mentioned that the Riyadh Metro is unique in that it can utilise solar energy, which will help save 20% of the energy usage in important electrical installations. As a result, the system’s stations and depots will employ thousands of solar cells.

Economic Growth and Metro Projects

In response, Abdullah Al-Kharif, Vice President of the Riyadh Chamber, stated that the availability of public transportation, such as buses and metro, improves people’s quality of life overall by facilitating workers’ commutes from their places of employment, facilitating access and mobility quickly, assisting in the management of time economies, and encouraging businesses to locate near metro stations to better serve their workforce and maximise productivity.

Besides, economic writer Dr. Ihsan Ali Buhaliqa clarified that in terms of promoting economic growth, many analytical studies show that metro projects can help raise a city’s GDP, employment rate, and population; furthermore, the positive effects are greater in the most developed and densely populated cities.

He went on to say that a statistical analysis comparing the pre-and post-metro conditions of several Chinese cities revealed that metro systems greatly enhanced the GDP growth rate in metropolitan regions.