Rail

The railway system is least developed means of transport in the Kingdom. There are vast distances to cover, in often adverse environmental conditions, and it was inevitable that airline services seem to be a more practical mode of transportation to a country undertaking a major development program in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Kingdom's railways currently consists primarily of a single track, standard-gauge line, running for 570 kilometers from Riyadh to Dammam in the eastern region. The line, which was opened in 1951 (1370/71 AH), runs through Dhahran, Abqaiq, ::I, ::I and Al-Kharj and has benefited from substantial renovation processed in recent years. An additional line linking ::I with Riyadh was opened in 1985 (1405/06 AH).

The Kingdom's railways are managed by the Saudi Arabian Railway Corporation (now the Saudi Government Railways Organization), established in 1966 (1396 AH) as an independent public utility, governed by a board of directors.

A train service with first-class air-conditioned carriages runs daily between Riyadh and Dammam on the east coast.