[sustran] The Train to Mecca
Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory
edelman at greenidea.eu
Fri Oct 16 19:54:51 JST 2009
<a href="http://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature65473/">The
Train to Mecca</a>
Saudi Arabia is launching the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro, more
widely known as the Mecca Metro, in 2010. The project seems likely to
revolutionise the journey of some 3 million Muslim pilgrims who make
their way to the holy city each year during Hajj. Alex Hawkes speaks
exclusively to Thales, which is providing its driverless train control
and telecommunication systems for the project....
***
As the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, Hajj poses a steep and
at-times dangerous logistical nightmare for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In 2008, for example, about 3 million pilgrims from around the globe
descended on the holy city of Makkah (Mecca) to celebrate the life of
the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The annual event sees hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously
converge on Mecca during the week of Hajj -- which takes place on the
eighth to the 13th day of Dhu al-Hijjah -- and perform a series of
rituals. These include walking counter-clockwise seven times around the
Ka'bah (the central positioned building that serves as the Muslim
direction of prayer) and hurling stones at the plains of Mount Arafat
(the Stoning of the Devil).
Naturally, an event of this scale and complexity is not without its
share of problems. In 2006, stampeding led to the deaths of 362 pilgrims
during the Stoning of the Devil ritual. With an increasing number of
international airline services into the Kingdom, the attendance of
foreign pilgrims has also risen in recent years -- from 1,080,465 in
1996 to 1,729,841 in 2008 -- placing additional demand for
transportation to the site
*Safe transport solution*
As a result, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed a contract with the
China Rail Construction Company (CRCC) in February 2008 to construct a
new 17.7km metro line linking Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. The line,
which will be named the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro (MMMP), is
expected to reach a full operating capacity of 72,000 passengers per
hour per direction in time for Hajj 2011.
Each train supplied by the Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CNR
Changchun Railway Vehicle Company will carry up to 3,000 passengers. The
line will have a total of nine stations, three of which will loop around
the holy site. Each train will consist of 12 cars and travel at a speed
of 100km per hour.
The project also takes on a more European dynamic with Knorr-Bremse
supplying braking systems for the trains and platform screen doors for
the stations, and Thales supplying, integrating and deploying its
driverless train control and telecommunications systems.
For Thales, the project -- along with its involvement with the Dubai
Metro -- marks a new era for business in the Middle East. The company
will install its SelTrac Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC)
system from its Urban Signalling Centre of Excellence located in
Toronto, Canada, which has been implemented on a number of other metro
networks across the world including Hong Kong, New York, London,
Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing and, of course, Dubai.
The system was originally pioneered by Thales' Rail Signalling Solutions
unit in Toronto in the early 1980s and has since become one of the world
leaders in the rail market
Thales signed a contract worth EUR103m with CRCC back in June and is
working towards completing the first phase of the project, which will
see the line operate with Automatic Train Protection and Automatic Train
Supervision in time for Hajj in November 2010.
Following the Hajj 2010 operation, the suppliers will finalise the
second phase of the project before Ramadan in mid-2011 when the line
will operate driverless with an attendant on board.
As Dan Filip, marketing & strategy director of Thales Rail Signalling
Solutions is quick to point out, even with the project split into two
phases, the deadline is a tight one:
"The challenge of this project is definitely the delivery time," he
says. "Effectively we have to complete design and implementation of the
CBTC solution in two years, which if you compare it to the two years we
spent designing the Dubai Metro is a strong contrast marked by a great
challenge.
"The Dubai Metro, however, was a much larger project [the network covers
76km in total and will be the longest driverless system in the world].
There was a lot of experience gained during that project that we have
been able to reuse for the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro. We have
also previously successfully implemented the same SelTrac CBTC solution
on over 30 rail networks worldwide, so have a wealth of experience to
draw on."
*Full steam ahead*
The initial opening period for the Dubai Metro is likely to prove an
interesting point of comparison for the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah
Metro. The fully automated metro network opened to the public on
September 10th 2009 making it the first urban train system in the
Arabian Peninsula.
More than 110,000 people -- nearly 10% of Dubai's population -- rode the
metro during its first two days of operations, which, for a region not
traditionally associated with the rail sector, appears a largely
positive response.
Thales has built-up a substantial client relationship in the Middle East
in recent years. The company is also involved in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia's mammoth North-South railway, which will connect the northern
mineral belt with Riyadh and the industrial city of Jubail through a
2,400km rail line, as well as three sections of Algeria's North Railway
Bypass and a number of rail programmes in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
"Our experience in the Middle East has made us aware of Arab culture and
how to conduct business effectively over here," Filip adds. "With the
vision, enthusiasm and perseverance of local government and
transportation authorities from each country combined with the
consultants' depth of transport experience, all the projects that were
implemented, or are under construction or are subject to feasibility
studies are on a successful track following international standards and
processes.
Yet, the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro will eventually serve a
purpose very different from that of any other Middle Eastern rail
project. The line will provide for an impressive 25,000 passengers per
hour per direction (PPHPD) when it initially opens for Hajj 2010, which
will rise to a staggering 72,000 PPHPD the year after. The period of
extreme demand the metro therefore must meet during Hajj is almost
unparalleled by any other rail system worldwide.
"The other thing you must remember is the pilgrims, who include a
variety of ages and genders, may have to walk about 17--20km in the heat
as part of the Hajj ritual so are often heavily fatigued," explains Filip.
"Once the system will be operating 24 hours per day during the Hajj
period at maximum passenger capacity in 2011, the line will be able to
carry close to one million passengers, a third of the pilgrim population.
"If it operates successfully, the Kingdom wants to construct another two
or three parallel metro lines that would be able to support the entire
pilgrimage."
The first phase of the metro is expected to open in time for 2010's Hajj .
--
--------------------------------------------
Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory
Urbanstr. 45
D-10967 Berlin
Germany
Skype: toddedelman
Mobile: ++49 0162 814 4081
Home/Office: ++49 030 7554 0001
edelman at greenidea.eu
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- B. Brecht (with slight modification)
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