[sustran] The Train to Mecca

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

<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 .


-- 
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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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