SAUDI ARABIA: The last of the six metro lines in Riyadh opened on January 5 when services began on Line 3, the Orange Line.
An initial five stations have opened, at Jeddah Road, Tuwaiq, Al Dawh, Harun Al Rashid Road and An Naseem. A number of intermediate stations and an eastern extension are to follow in the coming weeks.
The Orange Line will be the longest on the network, running 41·1 km from Jeddah Road in the west to Prince Saad bin Abdulrahman Al-Awwal in the east and including 11 km of tunnels when fully open.
It has been built under a US$5·21bn contract awarded in 2013 to the ArRiyadh New Mobility consortium of Ansaldo STS (now Hitachi), Bombardier Transportation (Alstom), Salini-Impreglio (Webuild), Larsen & Toubro and Nesma.
It has a fleet of 47 two-car Innovia automated trainsets.
- A further three stations on the Blue Line also opened on January 5.
