Eastern Province, which is key to the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon production, is due in just seven years time to have an integrated transport system. This will include a two-line metro linking Dammam and Qatif. The new transport network, which is going to include buses as well as trains, is going to be fully-integrated and promises major economic benefits to the region.
Announcing the SR60 billion project this week, Eastern Province Mayor Fahad Al-Jubair said that the scheme will have two main lines, including one linking Dareen island in the north of the province to Qatif, passing by Dammam and Dhahran to reach the King Fahd Causeway, linking Saudi Arabia with Bahrain.
Detailed planning and design studies will now take one and a half years, while contractors from the Kingdom and abroad line up to bid for all or parts of the contract. Motorists, long used to the frustration of endless jams at peak periods, will be hoping that the present delays will become a thing of the past.
And therein perhaps lies the biggest challenge. Every motorist is likely to be hoping that every other motorist will abandon his car and take to the new rail and bus transport network. The roads will thus be left entirely clear for him. It is never going to work that way. Saudis love their cars almost as much as do the Americans. It will require a lot to persuade them to abandon their vehicles and use public transport. Yet snarled-up traffic, in cities across the Kingdom, not just in Eastern Province, loses the country money in terms of delay and opportunity cost.
This is a lesson that the designers and planners need to be taking onboard right now. They need to be thinking of four key ingredients that will persuade travelers to make the switch. The first is safety, not simply in terms of operations but also as it concerns family travel. Can passengers be sure that they can travel quietly with their family without being bothered by other passengers? Will there be proper levels of security camera surveillance on what will probably be driverless trains? In short can travel in a coach or rail carriage be a safe and pleasant experience? Then there is comfort and convenience. The rail-heads and bus-heads have to be plentiful and they also need adequate parking. The trains and buses will need to run regularly and swiftly and have, as standard, facilities such as reliable Wi-Fi. And finally, can the cost of travel on the network be competitive with motoring? Fares need to be low and ticketing systems easy and sophisticated.
It is very probable that Mayor Al-Jubair and his colleagues will also mount a major publicity drive to persuade travelers going into and across town to leave their cars outside a transport network station. However, the message also needs to wider than the mere convenience of the new system. It should also focus on the vast economic benefits that it will bring and how by using it with enthusiasm, passengers are actually benefiting the Kingdom itself. They are also, of course, saving themselves frequent frustration and hassle and, almost inevitably, a great deal of time.
Logical though the argument may be, it is still going to be a big sell. People will be asked to change the habit of a lifetime. Yet there is one more “hook” which may persuade them.
There can be little doubt that as with the metros due in Riyadh and Jeddah, Eastern Province’s system will be architecturally stunning. If the international response to the Dubai Metro is any gauge, the Kingdom’s far more ambitious metro projects are likely to cause a high degree of wonderment. Therefore people in Eastern Province must be told that they should be proud to be riding one of the wonders of the modern transport world.
There is however one danger which the planners must also take into account. Tunneling and pyloning a rail network, building stations and out of town car parks is a complex and disruptive process. Contractor trucks will jam the streets. Noise and dust will be everywhere. There will probably be times when motorists stuck in the seeming chaos of construction will regret the whole ambitious project ever started. However, they should comfort themselves with thought that things have to get worse in order to be made better. If all goes to plan, in seven years time, Eastern Province will have a fast and efficient integrated rail and bus network that will be the envy of the world.
The delights of integrated transport
