An artist’s impression of the Jeddah Metro.

Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has ordered the formation of a committee comprising government representatives to speed up public transport projects.

Prince Faisal unveiled the monthly report on Monday related to Jeddah transport and to follow up on the work process and schedule, local media reported on Tuesday.

Metro Jeddah CEO Osama Ibrahim Abdo said the transport project in the city will be completed by 2020 and will be operation by 2022.

The SR45 billion Metro Jeddah project, owned by the Jeddah Municipality, targets 30 percent of passenger traffic after 20 years of its operations. Abdo said the size of public transport today in the Jeddah Governorate is only 1-2 percent.

Jeddah Mayor Hani Abu Raas said Metro Jeddah is being executed by the best international companies in the field and it will link all of Jeddah, including the corniche and it will be covered by trams.

The plan is to establish a network of 149 km with 20 km underground but most of the lines will be on bridges, including a suspension bridge. The metro will link the Jeddah neighborhoods from the north to the south. This is called the “neighborhood train” but its establishment will only be decided by the volume of passengers, especially since it can be worked through the additions of more carriages.

The metro witnessed changes in its blue line after the rain of last year and the bridge project at the Falak Circle was delayed.

A red line has been added to the metro network to link the Jawhara playground to the King Abdullah Highway at a length of 58 km and passes through 24 stations to merge into the three other lines of blue, orange and green at 85 stations.

Abdo said that one of the bridges has been designed in the form of an arch with a length of 380 meters and width of 74.5 meters, and has eight lanes each way to contain the area that divides the metro with the pedestrian way. The Abhar Bridge is one of the biggest that is suspended and has a network of rail lines, carriages, marine transport and a line on the corniche as part of a public transport station.

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