MENA rail projects worth $225 billion to be probed at MEED conference this month

Abu Dhabi, UAE; 15 October 2013 - Opportunities in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region's $225 billion rail, metro, tram and bus rapid transit (BRT) capital investment programme to 2030 will be highlighted at the MEED MENA Rail & Metro Summit which opens at the Beach Rotana Hotel in Abu Dhabi on 29 October.

Almost 50 expert speakers representing government and private businesses in the GCC, the wider Middle East and the world will address the event with over 300 delegates expected to attend the conference.

Figures provided by MEED Projects show that there are now 108 separate railway, metro, monorail, tram and BRT projects under bid, under design or under study in 14 MENA countries. More than 50 of them with a combined value of almost $140 billion are in the GCC.

Saudi Arabia has the greatest potential with projects worth $50 billion due to be completed by 2025, MEED Projects show. Rail, metro, tram and BRT projects in Qatar worth more than $30 billion are scheduled to be finished by 2020, ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Finals. The third biggest rail market is the UAE, where $27 billion worth of projects is due for completion by 2030. (see Chart 1)

(Chart 1: Value of MENA Rail Projects to 2030 by Country. Source: MEED Projects)

Philippe Casgrain, vice president for Europe, the Middle East & Africa at Bombardier Transport will open the summit with a presentation outlining the key challenges those involved delivering hundreds of billions of dollars of railway projects face in the Middle East region.

One of the biggest issues is pressure on the Middle East project supply chain and competing demands for steel, cement and skilled labour from other sectors of the region's booming projects market. About $2.2 trillion of projects are under bid, design or study, about half of this figure in the GCC. MEED Projects figures show that Saudi Arabia alone has a pipeline of more than $350bn of projects with a value greater than $1,000 million.

The project pipeline in rail, metro, tram and BRT projects is formidable. According to MEED Projects figures, almost $40bn of projects are under bid in the sector at present. But about $90 billion are under design and more than 75 per cent of projects under bid, design and study are due to be finished by 2020. (Charts 2 and 3)

(Chart 2: Value of Rail Projects by status. Source: MEED Projects) (Chart 3: Value of Rail Projects by completion date. Source: MEED Projects)

Joining the opening keynote session at the MEED Mena Rail & Metro Summit will be representatives of major urban rail, tram and BRT programmes. They include Dr Mohammed Montazeri, deputy managing director for planning and logistics at the Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Company. Iran has more than $15 billion of major projects in the pipeline and two-thirds of this planned investment will be in the urban rail network of the Iranian capital by 2025.

MEED Projects figures (see Chart 4) show that more than $90 billion of metro and light rail projects are planned in the MENA region by 2030. Planned passenger and freight rail investments of a similar value are projected in the same period. High speed railway projects of about $15 billion are under study. Monorail and tram projects worth more than $10bn apiece are planned. There is a single large-scale investment in BRT, a $1,500 million project in Abu Dhabi. Prequalification of companies wishing to work on the project is now under way. But other cities are now seriously considering BRT as an alternative and supplement to new urban rail and tram ways.