The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has set the completion deadline for the stalled railway project for December 2030. The project was launched in 2009 and is intended to connect Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman via a 2,000 km railway network. At a meeting in Muscat, Oman, in mid-November 2023, the GCC transport and communications ministers approved a budget for the joint GCC railway authority for 2024. The planned network is expected to cost over €182.7 billion (US$200 billion), will not be electrified and will mainly be used for freight transport, with passenger transport to be added at a later date. The GCC forecasts that 95 million t of freight and eight million passengers will be transported on the line each year by 2045. The construction of the line sections will be left to the individual countries.
