Skip to main content

Mena states plan $225bn transport projects

The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region has a US$225 billion rail, metro, tram and bus rapid transit (BRT) capital investment programme to 2030, according to a report by Meed Projects. There are now 108 separate railway, metro, monorail, tram and BRT projects under bid, under design or under study in fourteen Mena countries. More than 50 of them, with a combined value of almost $140 billion, are in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
October 17, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region has a US$225 billion rail, metro, tram and bus rapid transit (BRT) capital investment programme to 2030, according to a report by Meed Projects.

There are now 108 separate railway, metro, monorail, tram and BRT projects under bid, under design or under study in fourteen Mena countries.  More than 50 of them, with a combined value of almost $140 billion, are in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Saudi Arabia has the greatest potential with projects worth US$50 billion due to be completed by 2025.  Rail, metro, tram and BRT projects in Qatar worth more than US$30 billion are scheduled to be finished by 2020, ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Finals. The third biggest rail market is the UAE, where US$27 billion worth of projects is due for completion by 2030.

These projects will be highlighted at the Meed Mena Rail & Metro Summit which opens at in Abu Dhabi at the end of October, when around fifty experts from government and private businesses in the GCC, the wider Middle East and the world will address the event, with over 300 delegates expected to attend the conference.

Speakers at the conference include Dr Mohammed Montazeri, deputy managing director for planning and logistics at the Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Company. Iran has more than US$15 billion of major projects in the pipeline and two-thirds of this planned investment will be in the urban rail network of the Iranian capital by 2025.

Related Content

  • UK transport planning not giving sufficient priority to air quality, say researchers
    August 31, 2016
    According to two university researchers, UK transport planning is not sufficiently taking into account the environmental impacts of transport choices. Their report, which is due to be presented at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference today, says that road transport is the principal cause of air pollution in over 95 per cent of legally designated “Air Quality Management Areas” in the UK. Current estimates are that over 50,000 deaths a year can be attributed to air polluti
  • Washington State gets active on transportation
    May 14, 2021
    DoT makes plans for VRUs - who currently represent 21% of Washington State's traffic fatalities
  • Learning from informal transit networks
    March 30, 2021
    When it comes to public transportation, the Minority World could take lessons in equity from the mobility infrastructure of emerging market cities, says Devin de Vries of WhereIsMyTransport
  • Gothenburg’s year of congestion charging
    April 9, 2014
    A year after it went live, Colin Sowman examines the technology used for Gothenburg’s congestion charging system and the effect the scheme has had on commuters. When it comes to long-term planning, the Scandinavians take some beating.The West Swedish Agreement is a case in point. Introduced in 2009, the Agreement runs through to around 2027 and aims to create an attractive, sustainable and growing region, and over that timescale the number of journeys is expected to increase by a third. Therefore the Agreem