The North/ South Route in Saudi Arabia

Bayka and the Desert

Saudi Arabia extends across over 2.2 million km² and is therefore six times as big as Germany. Being the biggest state on the Arabian Peninsula Saudi Arabia comprises more than 2,600 kilometres of coast length along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Only 1.45 % of the land surface is fertile, 95 % is covered by desert. The Gulf State has already initiated the conversion for a future after the oil era. New cities and entertainment facilities are being put up one after the other, mining of raw materials like gold, copper, zinc, ore or bauxite is being pushed and aluminium as well as phosphate plants are being built.
With the North/ South Railway the second large-scale project has joined in. The 2,400 kilometres long railway network of the North/ South route links the North adjacent to Jordan to the Persian Gulf and the capital city Riad. The rail network, which is not electrified, is largely single-track and designed for high speeds of up to 250 km/h. They are travelled on by special diesel locomotives which are suitable for the desert, including a sand plough. The partial route between the new industrial country Ras Al Khair and the phosphate mines in Hazm al-Dschalamid has been released for freight transport since 2011. Since 2017, the first part of the 995 road kilometres which are intended for passenger transport has been but into operation. The French Thales group lead the international consortium and we as Bayka have already been successful with two orders of our theft-defending cables.
In the meantime, Bayka is an officially certified supplier of the Saudi Railway Company (SAR). We have already been able to submit offers for all road sections and we have also managed to get some direct orders from the Railway Company.