The Middle East is finally starting to think about public transport. Dubai's metro opens on 9/9/09. Abu Dhabi will soon have trams and a metro. But the most exciting plans surround construction of an international rail network.

It's a mammoth undertaking. Only a few lines currently exist, chiefly in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel. This month Jordan ran some 'Ramadan Specials' on the old Hejaz Railway, but hardly anybody noticed. Yet it has plans for a new national network to link with Syria. Idealists envision a possible link with Israel. Relaxing aboard an express from Damascus to Jerusalem? We can only hope.

Next door, Saudi Arabia's rail expansion will link the Gulf with the Red Sea for the first time and connect the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. Plans are well advanced for a railway from Kuwait to Dubai and on into Oman. You could, in theory, go by train from Mallaig to Muscat.

The potential for change is very exciting. Opportunities to travel easily and cheaply make healthy societies: they foster social cohesion. Railways are progress.

In the UAE, where 80% of the population are from elsewhere, Emiratis are
very unlikely to use mass transit - at least until the individualism (and subsidised petrol) which ties people to their cars is abandoned. Consequently, building railways seems to be a rare, tacit acknowledgement by the UAE of the contribution made by outsiders, in particular South Asian expats. It is - momentously, for this fragmented society - a step towards social integration.

Misty-eyed rail buffs may dream of trains as harbingers of peace. But for people in the region, the plans are far more meaningful than that. Railway construction represents a tangible, realistic move towards nation-building. For the first time, virtually unlimited public funds are being married with long-term planning.

Two generations on from the biggest lottery win in history - counted in petrodollars - the Gulf countries are starting to find their feet again.
 

8 September 2009