Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) has issued a tender for the lead design consultancy services contract on its long-planned Saudi Landbridge railway network.

Interested companies have until 15 May to bid for the work, which covers the concept design and options for the preliminary and Issued for Construction (IFC) design stages on the 1,000 kilometre (km)-plus network.

The estimated $7bn project comprises more than 1,500km of new track. The core component is a 900km new railway between Riyadh and Jeddah, which will provide direct freight access to the capital from King Abdullah Port on the Red Sea.

Other key sections include upgrading the existing Riyadh-Dammam line, a bypass around the capital, and a link between King Abdullah Port and Yanbu.

The Saudi Landbridge is one of the kingdom’s most anticipated project programmes. Plans to develop it were first announced in 2004, but put on hold in 2010 before being revived a year later. Key stumbling blocks were rights-of-way issues, route alignment and its high cost.

More recently, the project has been under negotiation between Saudi Arabia and China-backed investors keen to develop it on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. However, the launch of a design tender directly by SAR suggests that Riyadh is looking at other options to develop it alongside the Chinese proposal.

In December 2023, MEED reported that a team of US-based Hill International, Italy’s Italferr and Spain’s Sener had been awarded the contract to provide project management services for the programme.

If it proceeds, the Landbridge will be one of the largest railway projects ever undertaken in the Middle East and one of the biggest globally. Based on typical design timeframes, tenders for construction are likely to be ready by mid-2026, although the question of how it will be financed will need to be answered before it can proceed to the next step.