Testing is currently under way on two major lines of the 176-km-long Riyadh Metro network featuring 85 stations, with the first lines on course to open in the Saudi capital city next year, according to a report.
Timetable tests on lines 4 and 6, respective 30km and 13km overground lines, are being stepped up with a view to handing the lines over to the operator, the Flow consortium - comprising Alstom, Hitachi Rail STS, and Italian State Railways - in the second half of the year, reported the International Railway Journal.
Flow will then simulate network operations ahead of the start of passenger services, stated the report citing a senior official.
Work on the $23 billion Riyadh metro project kicked off in April 2014. The Saudi capital city is also developing an integrated city-wide 1900km bus network with around 3,000 stops.
Progress is also being made on lines 1, 2 and 3, which are similarly in the final 10-12% of the works to be implemented although slightly behind on rolling stock testing, which is not at the carousel stage yet, stated Carter Rohan, the project director for the RMTC project management consultancy.
RMTC consortium comprises Parsons, Egis and Systra, which is overseeing packages 1 and 2 covering lines 1, 2 and 3.
According to him, the underground 25-km Line 5 is running a little further behind. "It will be September before we go into some of system demonstration and we will look towards the end of the year to handover to the operator," he added.
