Why the $250 Billion Gulf Railway Ended in Failure

in late 2009 six middle eastern countries proposed an ambitious plan to build a 1300 mile long railway directly through the expansive desert to connect six middle eastern countries using high-speed rail at the cost of over 250 billion dollars the project would have been one of the biggest in middle eastern history but as it turns out building a rail line through the scorching desert isn't as easy as it seems and may go down as one of the biggest engineering missteps in history [Music] the gulf railway project was approved back in 2009 when six middle eastern countries from the gulf cooperation council agreed that they would contribute to the completed rail line the bold plans featured a total of 1300 miles of track with each of the countries contributing between 90 and 400 miles of rail line each according to this graph byron and kuwait would contribute the least amount of rail line while saudi arabia and the united arab emirates would contribute the most the uae partnered with europe's largest railway network dorje bond to form their own company called etihad rail at the time when the project was proposed saudi arabia was the only country to have current railway infrastructure with everywhere else building it from scratch the gulf cooperation council believed that this new plan could help move freight between the six countries and eventually when eddie had rail was connected the line could serve as a passenger train as well the original completion date for the project was set for 2018 but after years of inactivity things weren't looking promising finally in 2015 construction began in oman and the united arab emirates with saudi arabia set to start just two months afterward but with each country at a different stage of constructing and developing the new rail line the 2018 completion date just didn't make sense in addition to the project being in various stages of development based on each individual country oil prices had begun to plummet since the project began which limited funding and questioned the overall need for this massive rail line the development was conceived at a time when oil prices were at their peak but just a few short years later the situation had drastically changed and according to reports construction in some of the gcc countries never even began just one year after oman began construction on the rail line project in their country they announced that they were putting it on hold due to a lack of funding reports later detailed that omen had not completely bailed out of the project but simply put it on hold as the united arab emirates had also halted construction on their part of the project with the rest of the gcc countries continuing to push construction farther into the future a realistic timeline for completion did not seem likely so again the targeted completion date was changed to 2021 and as it's now 2022 the rail line is still nowhere near completed with some targeted completion dates being just one year away the entire project is turning into an illusion of the past and continues to seem less likely as the years go by with current estimated completion dates of somewhere between now and 2025 what's left for this massive project and will these 10 year-old development plans actually be fully executed the current stage of this development does not make the outcome look promising stage one of the project had one simple goal which was to build and connect the rail line through all six countries to move freight and materials across the borders stage two was when passengers would be able to board the rail line which was the overall goal of the development and even as progress moves along very slowly in the united arab emirates ethiod railway in order to develop the entire rail line all the other countries need to be doing the same thing and the current situation does not reflect that with new middle eastern development projects taking shape as part of the 2030 and 2040 plans these countries have set out it seems as if the gcc railway was a project of the past and may never end up leaving the drawing board or even becoming a reality within the next 10 years as of writing this video it seems as if there is more confidence in the eddie han railway in the united arab emirates than the overall gcc railway actually being completed with recent reports stating that this new rail line will completely transform the united arab emirates and since the etihad railway will cost around 11 billion dollars it seems like a more realistic project to be completed based on the fact that it's way less expensive than the gcc railway in 2009 when plans were enacted to build this incredible rail line the countries involved were prepared to undertake such a large project the wealth from large amounts of oil in the middle east made this development seem like a necessary step to creating a sustainable economy for the future but in the end the future of this project is still very uncertain and may end up going down as one of the biggest engineering missteps in middle eastern history hopefully you enjoyed the video and if you did be sure to subscribe you

Channel: Arkive

Views: 91,154

Keywords: GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, GCC Railine

Id: qcyxm1i_nYQ

Length: 5min 10sec (310 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 14 2022