Editorial: The new Public Transport Authority

When the world’s first railway networks were being built in Great Britain in the 19th century, different railway operating companies were in bitter competition often with different lines running between the same cities. Their locomotives and their rolling stock were different, and most famously in the case of the Great Western Railway, the gauge of the track was wider than anywhere else on the national network.
At the time and indeed since, it has been argued that it was the spirit of business competition that drove the development of the British rail system. Thus the failure of several railway companies, with substantial losses for those who had invested in them, was an inevitable consequence of the capitalist system, which had brought the railways into existence in the first place.
Yet there were others who wondered if much effort and capital might have been saved, if there had been an overarching control and management of where and how the British rail system was developed. It certainly turned out that around a century later, when the operations of the then nationalized British Rail were reviewed, 55 percent of all the stations and 30 percent of the length of track were axed.
Therefore here in the Kingdom, the decision of the Council of Ministers to establish a Public Transport Authority, would seem wise and timely. The council has just approved the rules and regulations for the new PTA, which is charged with organizing the country’s public transport system and setting out to attract investment into the sector. The clear emphasis is going to be on railways, both the urban systems in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Dammam and the intercity links, including the 450-kilometer long
Haramain High Speed Rail (HHR), the electric-powered rail that will connect Makkah and Madinah via Jeddah and the 250 kmh Jeddah to Riyadh rail link.
To look at the PTA’s investment role first, it must be said that if the experience of most other rail operators around the world is anything to go by, private investors are no longer as keen as their nineteenth century predecessors on sinking millions in to new railways. Only in North America are some railways currently enjoying considerable profits, thanks in part to the movement of new oil from tar sands and shales. By and large, while freight can be profitable, passenger services are not. Whether in countries such as the UK, where train operators are private companies or on continental Europe where the majority is state-run, most services that carry people require a level of state subsidy. The major expense of any railroad is not the rolling stock and engines but the track and signaling. With the movement of high-speed trains, such as those that are coming to the Kingdom, the absolute integrity of track and signaling will be of paramount importance, especially in some of the challenging country through which the lines are passing.
The social benefit of our new rail system will be unquestionable but the investment is most likely to be made almost exclusively by the state through the Saudi Railways Organization. The opportunity for private investors may be limited to the provision of services such as catering.
The PTA’s role or organizing the country’s public transport system will clearly be important, in that it will look at bus and air as well as metropolitan and inter-city rail systems. The significance of integrating bus and rail has clearly been appreciated with Riyadh’s hugely ambitious mass transit rail system, which will link with feeder bus services. Much work has gone into planning how for instance, the Haramain High Speed Rail and the Riyadh mass transit projects will fit in with air links and indeed private motorists, who need to park up in order to use public transport.
Those intimately involved with all those ground-breaking schemes will be welcoming the arrival of the PTA and hoping that it will use its position to support the work that has already been done, rather than seeking to re-examine projects with an eye to better co-ordination. Besides regulating and supervising and improving the standards of public transport, the PTA is also charged with reducing unnecessary expenditure.
Public organizations have already committed themselves to investing billions of riyals in these urgently-needed and visionary schemes, that will truly transform the Kingdom. They will be hoping that now that the PTA is up and running, it will carry out its important supervisory function with a “light touch,” that is sympathetic to the requirement to have these projects completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.