Opening ceremony for the Mecca-Medina High-speed Railway in Saudi Arabia held

The opening ceremony for the Mecca-Medina High-speed Railway in Saudi Arabia was held on September 25, 2018 in Jeddah, a coastal city along the Red Sea. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia attended the ceremony.

The railway links the two holy places of Islam Mecca and Medina, and will be officially open to the public in October, 2018. According to Arab News, Salman inspected the service facilities of the railway on the same day.

With a total length of 450 kilometers, the Mecca-Medina High-speed Railway has five stations which are respectively located in Medina, King Abdullah Economic City, the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah and Mecca. After the high-speed railway comes into operation, the travel time between Mecca and Medina will be reduced to two hours from four hours at present.

The Mecca-Medina High-speed Railway is the first double-track electrified high-speed railway in Saudi Arabia with a designed maximum speed of 360 km/h. CRCC18 and CCECC constructed different sections of the project respectively. It is the world's first high-speed railway crossing the desert and the first high-speed railway with a designed speed of 360 km/hthat was constructed with Chinese enterprises overseas.