SAR North–South Railway line
The North–South Railway line is a railway line built by Saudi Railway Company in Saudi Arabia. Operation on long freight part of the project connecting Al-Haditha and Jalamid with new port city Ras Al-Khair was started in Jan 2015.
An 85 km link is planned which would connect the North–South railway with the port at Jubail.
The line starts from Al-Jalamid mine which is located in the northeast in the Northern Territory, through Al-Jawf and Hail until arriving at the "AlBaithah railway junction" in the Qassim region. It then headed toward the southeast for processing and export facilities at Ras Al-Khair in the Eastern Province near Jubail. The line shares infrastructure with the SAR Riyadh-Qurayyat Line between Buraidah and Al Nafud. The line is a dedicated freight corridor, however, the SAR Riyadh-Qurayyat Line operates only passenger services.
The first six of 25 EMD SD70ACS freight locomotives ordered in April 2009 were handed over to SAR at Port Dammam on 22 August 2010.
Passenger diesel push–pull trains made by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles arrived in April 2015, and are designed to run at 200 km/h up to 55 degrees C. Each of the SAR trains includes a restaurant car, family zone and a prayer compartment, as well as both seating and sleeping cars. They are expected to run in formations of nine and 13 cars.
