Gulf Cooperation Council states plan to sign the general agreement for the GCC railway at a meeting of transport ministers in Bahrain on November 8, Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said on Sunday.
Speeding up the project has become one of the top priorities, both between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and across the six GCC states, the minister told Asharq Business with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Gateway Gulf 2026 forum in Manama.
He said earlier steps included setting up the GCC Railway Authority and work on the legal framework the project needs.
Several GCC countries have already begun implementing their sections of the line, he said, according to News of Bahrain. He said he expected the ministerial meeting to produce an important announcement, including agreements linking all six countries.
Bahrain is coordinating with Saudi Arabia on building a second causeway and on connecting its railway to the wider Gulf network, the minister said.
The planned route runs for about 2,117 kilometers from Kuwait City to Muscat, according to the GCC General Secretariat. It passes through Dammam in Saudi Arabia, with links to Bahrain and to Qatar through the Salwa crossing, and continues through Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in the UAE to Sohar and Muscat in Oman.
Passenger trains are expected to reach speeds of about 220 kilometers an hour, while freight trains would run at 80 to 120 kilometers an hour.
Mohammed Al Shabrami, director of the GCC Railway Authority, said in May that the project was 50% complete and was targeted to start operating by the end of 2030, Saudi newspaper Al Eqtisadiah reported at the time.
The minister also said Bahrain’s multimodal transport system had cut shipping times by 50% and shipping costs by around 40%, and that a number of companies had already benefited.
