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

  • October 24, 2018
    London’s zero-emission plan is premature, warns FTA
    Plans to implement a clean air zone in London are premature, says a transport trade body - because zero-emission vehicles are not commercially viable. The Freight Transport Association (FTA) is unimpressed with the City of London Transport Strategy’s ambition to improve air quality and traffic in the east of the capital and the Barbican area by 2022. This draft scheme, which maps out a 25-year framework for managing streets within the City’s ‘Square Mile’, includes establishing a speed limit of 15 mp
  • March 28, 2017
    Malaysian LRT line orders more Bombardier trains
    Rail technology specialist Bombardier Transportation and its local partner Hartasuma are to deliver an additional 27 Bombardier Innovia Metro 300 trains for the Kelana Jaya Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line in Malaysia. The order from Prasarana Malaysia Berhad is valued at approximately US$388 million (1.7 billion Malaysian ringgit). The lightweight aluminium Innovia Metro 300 trains can move up to 30,000 passengers per hour, per direction. Once final delivery is completed in 2022, these four-car trains will
  • November 23, 2020
    Banks' statement aims to cut road deaths
    Pledge from world's bankers aimed at reducing the 1.25 million lives lost on roads each year
  • November 21, 2012
    Transportation hub the centre of sustainable urban development
    A marriage of transit, technology and culture is taking shape in Minneapolis, with ITS systems vital to hopes for a sustainable development centred on a hub of public transportation. Construction started in July this year on ‘The Interchange’ – a station in the Midwest US city of Minneapolis claimed as the most spectacular expression yet of the fast-spreading North American concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). Due for completion in 2014, the Interchange is designed as a multi-modal public transpor