02.01.20
XRAIL Group awarded seven-year contract in Saudi Arabia
A long-term maintenance contract on the Haramain High Speed Railway (HHR) in Saudi Arabia has been awarded to XRAIL Group.
HHR is a 453-kilometre long high-speed, digital inter-city rail system, and has been referred to as the ‘crown jewel’ in Saudi Arabia’s railway.
It is the biggest railway in the Middle East and designed to accommodate growing passenger demands, from an initially estimated 60 million to 135 million passengers per year.
The project is worth SR60bn ($16bn), including five stations, two of which are located in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, two central stations in Jeddah and King Abdullah Economic City and the final station located at King Abdulaziz International Airport.
Corrective and Preventive maintenance services for signalling systems will be delivered by XRAIL over the next seven years, providing 24/7, 365 days a year support as part of the contract and offering six maintenance centres located along the 453km railway line.
The HHR railway line has state-of-the-art Digital Railway signalling and communications system ERTMS Level 2, and has train speeds of more than 300km per hour.
The railway is envisioned to be a passenger-dedicated line to serve and connect with every major populated urban centre in Saudi Arabia.
Munir Patel, managing director, XRAIL said:
“This is a great day for XRAIL and its team. We are delighted and honoured to have been selected as a key maintenance partner on the prestigious Haramain High Speed Railway with Siemens.”
“This our second major contract win in the region, and we are extremely proud of it. Our teams invested significant time, effort and resources to demonstrate the best of British railway engineering which can be exported to the region and we are excited to be given this opportunity again. We look forward to continuing on building on our strategy and successful and long-term relationships with our partners across the Middle East”.
Photo: Xrail Group