Oman and the United Arab Emirates Sign Rail Deal

This week, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman reached a $3 billion agreement to link their countries with freight and passenger rail service.

The project will be run by a newly established entity, the Oman-Etihad Rail Company, which will be equally owned by the UAE’s Etihad Rail and Oman Rail.

The new entity will use the $3 billion investment to design, develop and operate the 188-mile railway network connecting Abu Dhabi with Sohar to the north of Muscat, the capital city of Oman. Passenger trains will run at max speeds of about 125 mph and complete the journey in 1 hour and 40 minutes. The line will carry 400 passengers per train and is expected to carry 36.5 million passengers annually by 2030.

This is part of a much larger vision for an expansive passenger and freight rail network in the UAE called the Etihad Rail Project. The rail network is supposed to link 11 cities and areas of the country, while connecting to all six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. This includes rail links between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.