20 billion franc project Saudis build 176 kilometers of metro - in ten years
Special carriages for women and a luxury feeling: the Saudi capital Riyadh has had a metro since the beginning of December. It took just ten years from the ground-breaking ceremony in 2014 to the opening. Not the only superlative.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The first metro on Saudi soil opened in Riyadh in early December 2024.
- The royal family has invested more than 20 billion Swiss francs in the ambitious project.
- With a total route network of 176 kilometers, 85 metro stations and six metro lines, up to 3.6 million passengers are to be transported every day.
- Human rights organizations have been criticizing the working conditions in Saudi Arabia for years, especially for the approximately ten million migrant workers employed in the country.
The world's first subway tunnel opens in London in 1870: the Tower Subway. In the German capital Berlin, construction of the subway did not begin until 26 years later, in 1896. Workers dug through the Märkische Sand for six long years until the first section was finally opened in 1902: From the Stralauer Tor subway station, which no longer exists today, the line runs over six kilometers and nine stations to Postdamer Platz station.
From zero to 176 in ten years
Time jump: 111 years later, in April 2013, King Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia, decides to build a subway. The ground-breaking ceremony takes place exactly one year later, in April 2014. And, simsalabim: ten years later, the 176-kilometre network is ready for local transport.
It would sound like an anecdote from A Thousand and One Nights if international observers such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did not repeatedly point out the circumstances under which Saudi construction projects are implemented.
Women's carriages and first-class compartments
In the video, blue News shows you what other superlatives the metro in Riyadh can boast, how luxurious the carriages look from the inside and under what dubious conditions the major project may have been implemented.
